Mayday
by w Blitz
Summary: HOUSTON!" "MAYDAY, MAYDAY!" "HOUSTON WE ARE GOING DOWN!" The battle to save all of humanity was so much more than that...It was the distance humans would go for love and friendships, for life...It was the high note of the history of mankind.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: All original movie characters, lines, settings etc. Belong rightfully to their creators. I own nothing except Rachel Velsing.**

**Chapter 1 - 8 Days **

**A R M A G E D D O N**

** What are we fighting for?**

Rachel cracked her neck wearily, she stopped midway through a yawn as she heard gunshots fire. Rachel looked up from her job on the pipes, knowing instantly it was something AJ had done to seriously piss off Harry this time. Rachel stood up, taking a step onto the main pathway. She began walking in the direction of the gun fires and only moved quicker when Grace screamed,

"HARRY THIS IS NOT FUNNY!"

Rachel broke into a jog as she saw Harry up ahead with Grace screaming again at him and AJ on the move.

"Harry! Put the gun down! Your acting insane!"

Rachel noticed Grace only had a jacket wrapped around herself, and then she instantly knew what happened. Harry finally caught them. Rachel at that point made a mental note to not let Harry find out about her knowing when it all began.

"Now, honey go get some clothes on, and get out of the way."

"You can't control my life!" Grace shrieked.

Harry now looked at her in severe irritation, "Fine! _Clothes. NOW!" _Grace hurried to her barracks to get her clothes on, knowing Harry would probably kill AJ if she wasn't around.

Rachel fell in next to Chick and spoke, "Uh…AJ?"

Rachel didn't even need an answer when AJ shouted,

"You know what STOP! Alright! I-it was funny for a minute, but now it's not funny anymore-"

Rachel jumped to the side in shock as Harry again fired the gun, narrowly missing AJ and sent it ricocheting off the metal tubes. AJ crow hopped in an attempt to escape the bouncing bullet,

"YOU'RE OUT OF YOUR MIND!"

Rockhound took a step forward as Harry cocked the gun again, "H-Harry this is illegal man!"

"I'm temporarily insane, Rock, it's alright."

Rachel shot a wide-eyed look at Chick who shook his head at Harry's response. Harry began walking towards the tower as AJ screamed on his descent 'George of the Jungle style'. He landed a little rocky and immediately sprinted into the towers pressurization tubes and tanks holding area. Rachel spoke,

"Harry!-"

"What, Rache?! I've gotta a gun, and I am not in the mood for rationalizing things."

Rachel took a deep breath and nodded her head. Who in their right mind would want to screw with Harry Stamper, when he had a gun? She wasn't involved and she wouldn't involve herself. And AJ was the poor sap that gets the brunt force of Harry's rage.

Harry shot a glance at Chick and spoke, "Do I look like I am crazy to you?"

Chick took a breath, "Well…."

AJ was found cowering behind a propane tank, he shouted, "Harry! Alright just cool down!"

AJ had to duck again as Harry pulled the trigger the bullet hitting the notepad and then bouncing between the metal. AJ screaming,

"STOP! STOP! Alright Stop!"

"Alright now listen! Man to man!… I'm serious, I love her."

"WAY WRONG ANSWER!" Shouted Harry in response. Without hesitation he fired the gun again, the bullet struck a light hanging down and bounced skimming AJ's leg. He screeched over and over grabbing his leg. Rachel shot Bear a wide-eyed 'Holy hell' look, Bear returning it.

Chick spoke, "Whoa, Whoa, Harry, it's gettin' real."

Grace came from behind screaming, "HARRY! HARRY!" She shoved through us, running up to AJ.

Harry spoke calmly, "The bullet never got close, it's just a ricochet."

AJ growled, "You know it's all funny until someone gets shot in the leg!"

Rockhound suddenly shouted, "HEY! PUCKER UP WE GOT FLYING CUSTOMERS IN!"

Rachel looked at Grace fussing over AJ, she shook her head,

"God damn, I thought working on an Oil drilling rig would rid me of drama."

Harry muttered, "With my daughter aboard, there will always be drama."

Rachel rolled her eyes, "Oh yeah Harry, you shooting AJ in the leg with a double barreled shot gun has nothing to do with the drama."

If looks could kill, Rachel would have dropped dead on sight from the look Harry shot her. Rachel muttered,

"Ah, damn, not a good way to start off the morning."

Chick laughed and clapped a hand on her back as she went in the opposite direction towards her post.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

"Where did Harry go? I need him to sign some papers for me."

Chick looked up, "Harry had to leave. Here's your pay."

Rachel frowned, "We're getting it early?"

"Yeah, I dunno why, Harry just told me to do it."

"Ok, no complaints from me. I'm outta here."

Chick laughed, "So is everyone else."

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

**Day 15**

"Ok, I'll go and get AJ, I know where to get him. We need one more person, and I think Rache would be great, but I don't know where we would be able to find her."

Truman spoke up, "What's her full name? I can have one of my men track her down."

"Rachel Velsing."

"Hatcher!" Truman called out.

"On it!" was Hatcher's response as his fingers began immediately flying across the keyboard.

Truman looked at the screen as an attractive woman's face appeared. She had dark hair and viridian blue eyes, Truman's observation was cut short as Harry spoke,

"Yeah, that's her."

Truman's eyes scanned over her record, he frowned, "You sure you want her?"

Harry's forehead creased, "Yeah. I practically helped raise her, and since she has worked with me, she has proven to be pretty reliable."

Truman still frowning responded, "Yeah, well she was in Civil Air Patrol, impressive, ROTC too, again impressive. She has been awarded the Bronze star, very impressive, But she was dishonorably discharged for the hand in a murder of a fellow soldier…? She wasn't imprisoned because there wasn't enough proof. She's a coward Harry, and apparently by Military commanders has been deemed a murderer too."

Harry's face fell into a deep frown, "Now, I don't know much about her history between the two times we have met, but Rache is not capable of murder. I guarantee it. There must have been some mistake…"

"Or she has tricked you."

Harry growled defensively, "No one tricks me, Sir. I want her on this mission and once you meet her you will know why."

Truman sighed, "Alright. She lives, amazingly near El Paso, our men should be picking up Oscar soon and can pick her up while they are at it."

Harry nodded his head, "I'm gonna go and get AJ now."

Truman nodded his head as he sent in a call.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

"So we're going to pick up Rache?"

"Yes."

Oscar sat back, "Oh ok."

They pulled into a dirt road driveway, a few horses were out in a pasture and Rachel was no where to be seen. The screen door to the house slapped shut indicating she had just gone inside. The FBI agents exited the vehicle, Oscar staying inside examining the landscape with interest. He knew Rachel better than anyone, as the two of them work on the same station and were very much alike in qualities. But like most everyone else, he knew nothing of her past, she simply just wouldn't say a thing about it. If you ask her she would say something simple to fill in the blanks but say nothing at the same time. Oscar was pulled from his thoughts as he looked out the car door window, the FBI were approaching her door…one of them picked up a baseball that was randomly leaning against the wall.

Suddenly the screen door burst open as Rachel came jogging out, she skidded to a halt her eyes falling upon the man which was nearest to her holding the baseball bat. Out of pure instinct and pure reactions, Rachel grabbed the bat, swung her leg around taking out the man's knees. With the baseball bat she took down the other, and midway was able to grab his gun out of the holster.

She stopped cold holding the gun to the last man's head, she spoke coldly,

"Who the hell are you guys, and why are you here?"

The man trembled as the other two groaned on the ground. Oscar opened the car door and spoke,

"Holy crap! Rache that was amazing!"

Rachel's head snapped in his direction, she spoke incredulously, "Oscar?!"

"What the hell is going on here?!" She held the gun firmly at the man's temple as Oscar spoke calmly,

"Oh, Harry's called us in."

Rachel suddenly saw the man's badge, her eyes widened, "Ah shit! You guys are FBI agents? Damn it!"

She immediately dropped the gun and backed off, the third man launching cuffs onto her hands as the other two stood up.

He shoved her towards the car angrily, she spoke,

"Ah…well I'm gonna arrive in style Oscar."

Oscar snickered, "You were amazing! You just single handedly took down three trained FBI agents! Where did you learn to fight like that?!"

Rachel shrugged as she was shoved into the car roughly, "Ah, it was a long time ago, training you know. Just stuff like that."

Oscar's forehead wrinkled as she again dodged a question, though said nothing more. He was however jittering in excitement to tell the guys what he had just witnessed.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

**Day 14**

Rachel stepped out of the car, her hands still in cuffs. Rockhound spoke incredulously,

"What'd you do?"

Rachel smiled as Oscar spoke enthusiastically, "You should've seen it! She took down 3 FBI agents single handedly, it was amazing!"

Rockhound shot a look at Rachel, "God damn."

Rachel looked up with a smile, though it quickly faded as she caught Harry's look. She grinned and shrugged as the FBI agent dug the key into the hole, unlatching the cuffs. She smiled sheepishly,

"Thank you."

He said nothing and walked away, Rachel grimaced. Not gonna look good on her already damaged record. Bear and Max ran up to each other like pumped football players echoing "Wassup." As they walked up the steps, Bear spoke,

"What's up, Harry? Did NASA find oil on Uranus, man?"

The crew erupted into laughter, Rachel and Bear bumped elbows with devious grins. Harry chuckled as Truman shot him a smile/grimace.

"Nah, guys. Just follow me."

Rachel frowned, Harry's voice was unusually calm and that worried her. Last time Harry's voice was really calm was when he had a shotgun and was after AJ. The crew walked through several corridors before stopping as Harry opened a door.

"Oh geeze, a conference room. Gotta be something big."

"Don't you know it." Replied Bear.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

"None of you have to go. We can all just sit here on Earth, wait for this big rock to crash into it, kill everything and everybody we know. United States government just asked us to save the world. Anybody wanna say no?"

"20 years. Haven't turned you down once. Not about to start now. I'm there." Chick said sincerely.

Freddy spoke soon afterwards, "Guess I can't let you go up there alone."

"I'm with you." Bear said deeply, his head nodding in all seriousness.

Oscar was fiddling with the space shuttle model on the table he spoke immediately afterwards,

"Man, this is - this is historic. Guys, this is…like…deep blue hero stuff! Of course I'm in."

Rockhound muttered, "While I don't share _his_ enthusiasm, you know me. Beam me up, Scotty!"

Max's head fell into his arms and just laid there, as Harry spoke, "You all right Max?"

Max responded in a breathless, stammering voice, "I-I don't, I-I don't….Whatever you think."

Harry nodded his head and then looked at AJ and spoke, "What about you?"

AJ spoke simply, quietly, "I'm in."

Everyone turned to look at Rachel who's arms were crossed across her chest, she looked up. Her eyes connected with the curious, daring ones of Harry. Without him saying anything, she spoke,

"Ah, you know me. I'm already there."

"All right then. We go."

"I don't mean to be the materialistic weasel of this group, but do you think we'll get hazard pay out of this?" Rockhound asked.

A smile crossed Rachel's face as she shook her head. Harry shrugged,

"I dunno, uh, you guys can write down your requests."

Nearly immediately everyone picked up the pens before them and began writing down things. Rachel however didn't move. She thought, wondering what she could possibly ask for, that they could do. She would like her history wiped, but then everything would have to be wiped…And even if her history was wiped it would still be there. There to haunt her. Suddenly Oscar spoke,

"Do you think they would accept none of us ever having to pay taxes again?"

Rachel laughed, "I like that one!"

The crew echoed in agreement, Harry spoke, "Yeah, I'll put that in."

Chick spoke, "I wonder who actually killed Kennedy…?"

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

Kimsey spoke in a near hissing voice, "If you're trying to make me feel better about this scenario, give it up."

Truman argued, "To tell you the truth, I'm kind of encouraged. This guy Chick here was an Air Force commando for six years."

Kimsey opened the folder in his hands and spoke, "We've got robbery, assault, arrest, resisting arrest. We've got a collection agent for the mob. Two of these guys have done serious time!"

"Look, they're the best at what they do." Truman responded wearily.

"So am I. And I'm not so optimistic. We spend 250 billion dollars a year on defense. And here we are. The fate of the planet is in the hands of a bunch of retards I wouldn't trust with a potato gun."

The group immediately quieted down as Harry approached cautiously. Truman turned and spoke,

"So what's the verdict?"

Harry stopped and responded, "They'll do it. They've made a few requests though."

"Such as?"

Harry riffled through sheets of paper and spoke, "Well, there's uh, few things here, uh... nothin' really big, uh, just- Well, as an example, uh, uh, Oscar here, he's got some outstanding parking tickets. Wants them wiped off his record."

Oscar shouted from the balcony, "Fifty-Six in seven states!"

Harry replied, "I'll-I'll tell 'em Oscar, you got it."

Rachel looked at Oscar, "Holy hell, _fifty-six?_"

Oscar shrugged with a small smile.

"Uh, Noonan's got two women friends that he'd like to see made American citizens no questions asked." Freddy grinned, rubbing his hands together happily as Harry continued.

"Max would like you to... bring back eight-track tapes. Not sure if that's gonna work, but, uh, let's see what else….Uh." Truman glanced at Max with a look of disbelief.

"Um, Chick wants a full week's Emperor's Package at Caesar's Palace. Um - hey, you guys wouldn't be able to tell us who actually killed Kennedy, would ya?"

Silence ensued, as the men just stared at him. Harry turned and shook his head.

"Um, Bear would like to stay at the…White horse?" He glanced up at Bear who then spoke slowly,

"_White. House. _White House"

"White House. Yeah, he'd like to stay in the Lincoln bedroom of the White House for the summer. Stuff like that…"

Truman nodded his head slowly, "Sure, I think we can….uh, take care of…some of that."

Rockhound turned and shouted, "Harry!"

Harry nodded his head and held up his hand, which he slowly dropped. "Yeah, one more thing, um…none of them wanna pay taxes again…Ever."

The three men stared at him. Harry grinned and shrugged.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

They all sat in the medical examining room, all in hospital gowns, and all sitting on their own gurneys. Nurses and Doctors passed through with oversized needles, passing through doors and occasionally into the back room. Rachel was all set up to go last, she wasn't sure why, and quite frankly she didn't care. She would like to postpone the stabbing of the needle as long as possible.

She watched on happily, watching her fellow oil drillers antics. She had only known them for four years, yet she loved them so dearly. Rachel's father had worked in the Stamper oil drilling business and amazingly, she remembered some of them from her childhood. Bear, Harry, and Chick were all there when she was a kid. Her father was killed in a drilling accident…So Harry and Chick took over for a few months until her mother took custody of her. Bear wasn't really a father to her, just one of the greatest friends she's ever had, he was always there and even though he is enormous, he was just as he was nicknamed a big teddy bear.

Max spoke, "Who's that for? Mr. Ed? You stick that thing in me, I'm gonna stab you in the heart with it. You ever see Pulp Fiction?" The doctor stared at Max, almost fearfully.

Rachel nearly erupted in laughter, she loved Max. He was a bit of…a… not an airhead but something else. It was hard to explain, but she loved him for it. He was the bully type, but then he wasn't. Max was a mixed character, but one thing that always stayed the same was his loyalty. And Rachel couldn't help but admire that.

Rachel's attention diverted to Oscar, who was playing with the medical equipment and spoke,

"We're losin' him, we're losin' him, Clear!" He acted out the shocking of his body sending Rachel into a few snickers. Oscar was her favorite, they were like best friends, had the same type of humor…It was impossible not to love Oscar, and almost certain to love him a little differently also.

Chick had been watching Oscar, but then turned to see Freddy hunch over in pain. Wheeling his own IV along,

"Freddy!" Chick called out. "You all right?"

Freddy responded incredulously, "Does this look okay to you? Does this look okay?"

Max jogged past Freddy and spoke, "It's not too bad. It's kinda tingly."

Rachel grinned at Max. She and Freddy weren't real tight, but they had the same sense of humor so they got along ok, They both did love ganging up together on the crew in some prank or other. Like most everyone else she cared for him like a brother.

Nurse Helga stuck her head out of the room and spoke, "Mr. Chapple, you're next."

Chick spoke calmly, "Aw, gee lady. I just came here to drill."

The nurse smiled, "Oh! So did I." Her sentence ended with a satanic look and a big ass needle.

Chick paled and gave her a frightened look before jumping off his gurney and walking in the opposite direction quickly.

"Your triglycerides are way high. And your bad cholesterol is shockingly bad."

Bear began to stand up on his table as Max spoke,

"Gotta lay off of those pork rinds Pooh Bear."

Bear ripped off his gown and spoke, "Pork rind this! Pork rind this! YEAH!"

Bear began dancing on the table, Rachel couldn't help but laugh, and laughed even harder when he pulled down his underwear to reveal one butt cheek. The room erupted into wolf whistles and cat calls, She shook her head, smiling. And at that moment wondering what the hell Truman thought of them. The thought of that made her smile.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

**Day 13**

Suddenly Rachel was in a room, built from triangles, the edges pointing outwards. Apparently it was supposed to create anger, fear, or discomfort. It didn't bother her a bit.

She sat comfortably, the shrink staring back at her. Rachel raised her eyebrows,

"Are you gonna start, or just stare at me?"

"How do you feel about yourself?"

"What are you a therapist too?"

The shrink opened his mouth but then closed it, and spoke,

"How did your military career go?"

Rachel didn't respond, her mouth closed and held firmly as her eyes narrowed. The shrink again blinked in his own discomfort, "Anger issues?"

"No."

"Ever murdered someone?"

Rachel's eyes narrowed, as she knew where he pulled that question from. She crossed her arms and again remained silent. The shrink spoke,

"Schooling?"

"Went to a normal public school, and I went to A&M for two years of college, and then transferred to West Point for my remaining two years."

"Majors?"

"Math and Science."

"Ok, tell me what you see in these pictures."

"You call that a picture? I call that a blob of ink."

"How about this one?" Asked the shrink.

I looked at the next one and again spoke,

"What the hell? That is the same blob turned upside down."

The shrink frowned, "This one?"

"Again, a blob is a blob, turn it whatever way you want to, and it will still be a fucking blob."

The shrink covered his hand over his mouth in restraint from laughing. Rachel smiled rocking on the hind legs of the chair,

"Are we finished?"

"Yeah we're finished."

"Good."

Rachel stood up and left the room without hesitation, the lighting or something or other was starting to get on her nerves in there. Just a brain wiring problem, most likely. Ah, who the hell was she kidding? She failed that.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

"Fail. Fail. Depressively fail!" He dropped the folders on the table.

"One person, one person of your entire team passed. And that was by the skin on her teeth, .1 percentile, that is it. And even with her passing she refused to answer questions of her past, or her career in the military. She is as stubborn as a bulldog, tough as one too, though I worry. Rachel Velsing, doesn't appear to be NASA material, and I believe the only reason she passed is because she holds some degree of intelligence and standing unlike all the others."

"One toxicology analysis revealed Ketamin, that is a very powerful sedative!"

Harry frowned, "Sedatives are used all the time, doctor."

Banks looked Harry in the eye and responded, "Well this one's used on horses."

Harry shrugged, "Some of these guys are pretty big."

As Kimsey glared Harry shrugged, "What?"

"You know, it would normally take 18 months to psychologically prepare pre-screened, viable subjects for space travel. We have seen evidence of a wide variety of territorial aggression."

Truman sent somewhat of a glare at Harry and then cut off Banks,

"Can they _physically_ survive the trip? That's all I need to know here, okay?"

Banks sat back in his seat, "Personally, I don't know how they survived the tests."

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

**Day 12**

"Good morning, I'm Colonel Willie Sharp."

"In addition to flying one of the X-71 teams to that rock, my job is to teach you how to deal with the mental and physical rigors of working in space…So you don't freak out on the asteroid."

The room was silent, everyone was either hunched over or slumped over in their seats. Rachel twirled her pen in her hand listening carefully.

"United States Astronauts train for years. You have 12 days. Do we have any intelligent questions before we get started?"

Chick raised his hand, Sharp nodded his head in his direction. "What's an X-71?"

"You're the first civilians to ever see her." Spoke Truman, he then turned and led them towards the large hangar.

As they entered, Truman again began speaking, "We call them the X-71's. It's a top secret joint venture with the Air Force. She and her sister ship in Vandenberg are leaving tomorrow for launch prep in Florida, but I thought you ought to have a look."

"The two shuttles going up are the Freedom and the Independence. Her titanium alloy impenetrable skin covers the toughest, meanest, most sophisticated space vehicle man has ever made."

Everyone stared in complete awe of the massive shuttle, Rockhound whistled lowly under his breath. Rachel muttered,

"Holy shit."

Harry smiled, "Holy shit's right."

A group turned to look at them. They held a superior look about them, looking down almost in a lowly fashion. Truman spoke,

"Air Force Colonel Davis, NASA Pilot Tucker will command the shuttle Independence."

One of man nodded in a greeting, there other simply stared. Though their faces seemed kinder than the others.

"Air Force Colonel Sharp, NASA pilot Watts shuttle Freedom."

The woman nodded her head.

"Munitions specialists Gruber and Halsey will supervise the nuclear ordinance." Both men of this group nodded their heads towards our group.

"Anyway, uh, I just, uh, thought you guys should meet." Spoke Truman in discomfort.

As the two separate groups stared at each other, and few began crossing their arms. Glares seem to start to form. Rachel muttered,

"Oh great, here we are with superior-thinking-Astronauts."

Rockhound grunted in agreement. Upon the feeling of their eyes upon us. I rolled my eyes, looking away trying to avoid their looks, I knew I would end up mouthing off. And now just wasn't the time to do that.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

**Day 11**

They stared down at the rippling water, when a voice spoke,

"Gentleman welcome to our weightless environmental training facility."

Rachel muttered to Oscar, "A.K.A Big ass pool."

Oscar snickered, making her grin. Suddenly Watts spoke,

"Something you would like to share with us, Velsing?"

Rachel's head snapped up, "Uh. No, no, actually I think, uh, I think I'm good. Thanks though."

The crew erupted into quiet laughter, as Rachel smiled sheepishly. Watts glared temporarily, but Rachel caught the edges of her lips twitching. She continued,

"Split into groups on either side of the pool, so you can be fitted with the weightless suit."

Rachel stood in line behind Freddy and Rockhound. The suits were stiff, and difficult to move around in. They then came around with the helmets, Sharp spoke,

"Velsing, I'm using you as an example."

"Guys listen up the helmet is put on around the ring, make sure the ring and the ring latching of the helmet is aligned, you will know it is on, when you hear a click. He put the helmet on my suit, I heard the click he was talking about, I slowly hobbled back to my spot in line and spoke,

"Thank God he did mine. I wouldn't have been able to get mine on."

Rockhound spoke, "It's not rocket science. You fit on, and it clicks. A monkey could do it."

"I bet a monkey couldn't do it, if he had a stiff ass suit on. I can't even lift my arms." Freddy muttered.

Rachel snickered as they were lowered down into the water by two's. Soon the entire crew was just floating around. Rockhound spoke,

"So we're going swimming on this asteroid, is that what this is for?"

Rachel smiled as she heard Bear's deep laugh echo over the intercom.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

**Day 10**

"Here at downtown NASA, we call this monster, Armadillo."

"It's going to be refitted for your drilling arm. There are 208 turtle horses in this aerographic." Spoke Quincy.

Harry crouched down, examining it, and spoke, "Mind if we take a look at it now?"

Truman allowed him to go ahead, we advanced on the machine, Harry climbing inside spoke,

"All these rubber hoses gotta go Max. Count em' up."

Rachel helped Max pull the rubber hoses out, enjoying actually working again. Max handed her some more he pulled, she tossed them over the side.

Harry spoke, "Quincy! Somebody tell me what this is…Plastic ice cream scoop? What'd that cost, about 400 dollars."

Rachel grinned at Harry's comment, tossing it down, Truman and Quincy shied to the side avoiding the bouncing apparatus.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

**Day 9**

"This is about the sorriest group of people, I have ever seen in all my entire Military career."

"Your space flight is going to be a brutal assault on all your senses. I am here to give you a taste of that. NASA's got some of the finest pilots in the world. They are going to be sucking your eyes to the back of your heads. And I am going to twist ya'. And I am going to flip ya'. Wrack your body until your bones hurt. And when you squeal, I am going to go faster and harder."

Rachel hopped into the F-22 Raptor, willingly. "Let's roll." She said excitedly.

The pilot grinned as the door lowered, and the engine roared to life. They began rolling down the strip, Rachel jittered in excitement, slowly the tip began to rise, quicker and quicker they lifted in the air. Suddenly the pilot veered right, pulling the point up in the air and stalling the jet. They began a three second free fall, when they hit flying air, he twisted the plane in a cork screw.

He dropped down in a straight out dive, pulling up in a spiral at the last second. She felt the jet and heard it's roaring engine whining as it gained more and more speed. It had been a long time since she had been in a jet and felt such forces on her body. She literally felt as if her eyes had been sucked to the back of her head. In another spiral, and stalling she felt the jet begin to slow. It was when the wheels connected to the ground, she felt the blood from her nose.

It was normal to get a nosebleed after feelings such forces, the opening lifted slowly, the pilot who had already unstrapped looked back, "How was it?"

"Fantastic. Got a nosebleed though."

Rachel unhooked herself, and hopped down from the jet, the pilot smiled.

"We should do that again after your little trip."

Rachel smiled, though in the back of her mind she felt a certain dread. She knew her chances of returning were slim next to none. She maintained her smile,

"Yeah we should."

She turned, heading back to the hangar, Chick fell into step next to her. He looked a little pale, but all in all fine.

"How was it?"

"Good."

"Nosebleed?"

"Nah, I just spilled paint on myself in the cabin." Rachel smiled at Chick as she wiped the blood away with a napkin.

Chick laughed.

Chick stopped when Harry came into view, just getting back from his flight.

"How's the rest of the crew?" He asked.

Chick didn't even have to say anything as the others came into view. They all except for Max appeared alright despite trembling and staggering every which way. Rachel couldn't help but smile.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

**Day 8**

Rachel picked up the screw driver, and carefully inserted it in the wiring, she pulled out a few wires and spoke,

"Ah. Who wired this?!"

Quincy spoke, "I did. Something wrong?"

"Yeah, something's very wrong. You wired the blue wire through the red and white wires, when it supposed to go through the yellow wire. Would you like to know why, the yellow wire?"

Quincy just stared at her.

"Because it controls the breaking system, if I hadn't found this, this thing would just keep driving once on the move."

Quincy nodded his head, Rachel smiled, "It's a simple mistake. Don't beat yourself up over it."

She placed the screw driver in between her teeth as she pulled the wires carefully out, and began replacing them correctly.

"VELSING!"

Rachel turned her head slightly from her crouched position, but continued wiring the Armadillo. Sharp appeared, she glanced at him, before dropping the screw driver into her hands and screwing the bolts back in,

"Yeah?"

"Truman wants you to brush up on your piloting skills."

"What? Why?"

"You'll be a backup pilot and technical problems engineer on the trip."

"And…he wants me start training?"

"Brushing up. You do remember some things from your training in the Military, right?"

"Yeah, but it's been a long time since I last piloted."

"That's why we are brushing up on a simulator. Follow me."

Rachel grumbled, "Hold on."

Sharp stopped, looking down at the plating she was screwing on. "Can you hand me that wrench over there?"

Sharp picked up a wrench from the edge of the Armadillo, and handed it to her.

"Thanks."

She tapped the plating, and then picked up the screw driver, tightening the plate down a little more. She stood up,

"Ok. Lets go."

As they passed Oscar and AJ, she heard them speak,

"Who do you think you are?"

Oscar spoke seriously, "Han Solo."

AJ responded, "No. If anybody's anybody, I'm Han and you're-you're Chewbacca."

Oscar responded incredulously, "Chewy? Have you _even_ seen Star Wars?"

Rachel smiled as they headed towards the next hangar. "So this simulator-"

"It's like an actual space shuttle, your just not in the air."

Rachel nodded her head as they entered the smaller hangar, Sharp spoke,

"You remember all of the signals and intercom talk, right?"

"Yeah."

"The controls of a space shuttle are similar to a jet's so that should help you out a little. I'll be co-piloting, but won't be doing much. You will give me the commands and I'll execute them, you'll be the main control of where the shuttle goes. The objective is to get to the checkpoints before your time runs out."

"Got it."

Sharp pulled the door open to the machine allowing Rachel in. He shut it behind him. Rachel sat down in the pilot's seat strapping herself in. Sharp took his place beside her. Flipping the switches, the screen came to life. Rachel pushed the control downwards, propelling the shuttle forward, she looked down at her radar seeing no objects.

Rachel gently turned the shuttle to the right, heading for checkpoint one, she glanced down and suddenly saw something being picked up. She frowned seeing nothing on the screen, as she turned again, a large rock appeared. She jumped slightly inside in shock of it's appearance, Rachel spoke quickly,

"Turn thrusters on full speed."

Sharp pushed forward on his controls, the roar of the thrusters rang in Rachel's ears as she narrowly dodged the rock, through a cork screw. Rachel hit the checkpoint just as the time beeped in it's last ten seconds.

Rachel veered to the left heading towards Checkpoint B, she easily dodged a rock the size of a small SUV, but wasn't prepared for all of the debris. "Shit." She muttered under her breath, she tried moving out of the belt, but found it was too long, and too wide to get out of.

Suddenly something hit the bottom of the shuttle, causing it to jump, alarms began going off. Rachel worked quickly trying to find out what happened, she spoke,

"We were hit by a rock downwards, it didn't show up on my radar, Ah, shit, we're going down."

Without the back rudders, they weren't going to be able to navigate the way they want to. The shuttle began to spiral as Rachel desperately tried to dodge the several space rocks that came in to view, a rock hurtled from high up, crashing into the wings on the left side. The shuttle began whining, as it began to lose control, Rachel spiraled it past several other space rocks, until one crashed into the main engines and ripped the whole front half off. The screen went blank.

Rachel sat back and sighed, she glanced at Sharp, who was unbuckling himself. She spoke calmly and seriously,

"A lot of us aren't going to survive this trip, huh?"

Sharp stopped and looked her in the eye, "Chances are slim for trained Astronauts to survive. We've never tried the survival rate of oil drillers in space."

Rachel smiled bitterly as she stood up, "So that's a no?"

Sharp said nothing. Rachel cleared her throat,

"So, besides destroying the ship, how did I do?"

"Better than I thought you were going to do."

They began heading towards the hangar where the guys were working. "Ever been in space before?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah."

"Do you ever answer with more than word?" Rachel asked in annoyance.

Sharp shot her a look, "Yeah."

Rachel growled, "Well you know, we'll more than likely be working with each other a lot more, so isn't a good idea to at least know each other to some degree? I have a hard time taking orders from people I don't know or trust."

Sharp laughed bitterly, "You have a lot of mind to say that. If anybody needs to not trust the other, that is me. I've already read your record, I already know you."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" Rachel struggled to keep up with Sharp's long strides.

"You know what its supposed to mean."

"Uh, no actually I don't. I have quite an extensive record."

Sharp rolled his eyes, "I'll say."

"So is that it, your going to keep dodging my question as to why you don't trust me?"

Sharp suddenly stopped, "You abandoned a fellow soldier during combat, left him to die. Do you ever wonder whether he had a family or not?"

Rachel frowned, "What?! I did no such thing, that was a false charge!"

"Military commanders rarely make mistakes, and so far, I'm siding with them."

Rachel growled, "That's not what happened!"

"Oh so you didn't abandon a fellow soldier in cowardice? It was intentional?"

Rachel turned away trying to calm herself. She whipped around and hissed,

"It is none of your business what happened that day, you weren't there, those Military commanders weren't there!"

Suddenly Oscar spoke, "Uh…Rache?"

Rachel turned and spoke, her rage showing plainly, "What?!"

Oscar backed up slightly, his eyes wide. AJ, Rockhound and Bear who had been outside of the hangar watched on. Rachel took a deep breath and spoke,

"We're done here."

She walked away from Sharp and spoke again in a calmer tone,

"What is it Oscar?"

He didn't answer, Rachel looked up from the schematics on the table, he, including the others were eyeing her curiously.

"Oscar! What did you need me for?"

He jumped slightly, "Oh, uh, the computer to the Armadillo is malfunctioning, Harry told me to get you…"

Rockhound spoke, "Yeah, what the hell was that?"

Rachel shook her head, "It was nothing Rock."

She walked away quickly towards the hangar, Harry rolled out from underneath and spoke, "Oh, Hey Rache there's a problem with the computer, It keeps saying different things, I dunno what's wrong with it."

Rachel nodded her head climbing inside the monstrous vehicle. She dropped down in the seat, and sure enough the computer kept popping commands on it's own. Rachel leaned down below the computer and began pulling out certain wires.

Quincy peered down into the cabin, "What's wrong with it?"

"I dunno, something with the wires, can you get me a screw driver please?"

"Here."

He handed her a screw driver, she began digging around in side pulling out the wires. Rachel spoke,

"Ah here's the problem, you wired it wrong again. The black and whites wires are twisted around the red and blue and go into the wrong ports."

Quincy looked irritated by his mistake, Rachel smiled again, "Don't worry about it. It's fixed."

Rachel pulled the wires out and began wrapping them around the correct wires, she plugged them into their ports. The car roared to life, she turned off the settings, and restarted the computer. Rachel jumped out, She spoke calmly,

"It's fixed Harry."

"Something up?"

"Hm? No. I'm fine. What else is there for me to do?"

"You can help Oscar and AJ clean some parts."

"Got it." Rachel turned and walked away without another word. As she approached them again, she grabbed a rag and an oily part. Rockhound spoke,

"I didn't know you were in the Military."

Rachel shot him a stony gaze and shrugged. Rock pursued, "So…what happened?"

She dropped the cleaned part and spoke, "Nothing happened Rock."

"Aw, come on-"

"You know what Rock, I am trained enough in Forensics to melt you from the inside out and leave no trace of evidence."

Rockhound looked at her wide eyed, making her smile slightly. Oscar spoke,

"Except us. Now we know if something happens to Rock, we know you did it."

Rachel looked at them and then spoke, "I took down three FBI agents and disarmed two, I'm pretty sure I can take down three oil drillers."

Oscar spoke, "I bet you couldn't take Bear."

Rachel let out a deep breath, "You know what, shut up Chewbacca."

AJ started laughing heartily at the bewildered expression on Oscar's face. Rachel grinned, she felt the anger slowly ebb away. No matter how furious she was, the crew could always make her the happiest person on the planet.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

**New story. I am following very closely to the line of everything that is going on and just adding Rachel in where she fits. I hope you guys like this story because I've redone 12 pages of work probably, 3 times now. And I finally got happy with the way the characters were portrayed and was able to finish one chapter xP**

**Yes, I know it's rather long, but, it's the beginning chapter of where it all starts. It'll more than likely start separating out as the story goes on. **

**Critique is not desired, but if you absolutely have to let me know something is terribly wrong, please do. I'd like to fix it. Be _constructive_ not destructive, please.**

**Sincerely,**

**Marinec**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: All original movie characters, lines, settings etc. Belong rightfully to their creators. I own nothing except Rachel Velsing.**

**Chapter 2 - Day 4**

**A R M A G E D D O N**

**What are we trying to save?**

**Day 7**

"You will insert the tubes into your mouth and when we say go, you'll start jogging at a regular pace, breathe as you normally would. Any questions?"

Rockhound raised his head, Sharp nodding his head in his direction, "For how long will we be jogging?"

"Ten minutes, give or take."

"Is everybody ready?"

No one spoke, Sharp looked down, setting his watch. "All right, begin."

Rachel set off, the tube in her mouth, it feeling very awkward while she was running. It also sent panic alarms off in her brain as it was hard to breathe normally through the narrow tube. She ignored the anxiety rising in her chest, and continued on as normal ignoring the plastic rope as best as she could. It wasn't long until the treadmills began slowing on their own and they were instructed to remove the tubings.

Sharp went along down the machines connecting the tubing writing down numbers and other stats. Rachel watched him carefully, still feeling irritation about the argument they had had the other day. And yet for some reason she felt a certain _attraction_ towards him. She felt completely ridiculous too, for having such an emotion, towards a man that was teaching them how to be astronauts and helping them save the world.

She shouldn't have such feelings towards work partners, what was wrong with her?!

Rachel kicked the thoughts away as Sharp spoke,

"Your hearing and eyesight will be tested in the next room, single file line right here, move."

The crew bustled over and eventually fell into a single file line, and two by two the line went on. Rachel turned to look at Freddy as he spoke,

"Hey Rache, where did you get this scar?"

Rachel shrugged, "Eh, I got it while I was in the Military."

"And…?"

"Yeah, that's it."

"What happened?"

Freddy was the most persistent son of bitch, Rachel had ever met. She looked at him, her eyes seemingly icing over. He continued to stare at her expectantly and curiously.

"It's a shrapnel wound."

"You know, once the pin is pulled, Mr. Grenade is not our friend." Freddy spoke mock seriously, a smile crossed his face as it grew into a devious grin.

Rachel laughed, albeit bitterly. "It wasn't a grenade, there was a suicide bomber and I jumped to protect a civilian, the shrapnel rained hell, I got stabbed, nothing to it."

Oscar, Bear, and Rockhound stared intently, Rachel shrugged a little uncomfortably, "What?"

Oscar spoke, "That's amazing. Do you have more stories?"

Rachel disliked people thinking she was amazing for the things she did while in the middle east which in reality she wasn't. Rachel replied dryly,

"Oscar, it wasn't amazing. I simply followed the call of duty."

Oscar went to reply when Watts spoke, "Oscar, Bear lets go."

Rachel moved up to next in line. Freddy spoke,

"How come you never talk about your time in the Military?"

"Because."

"Shouldn't you be proud of that?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Would you leave me alone?"

"No."

"I am proud to have served my country Freddy, not to have killed people."

"Velsing, Freddy."

Rachel walked into the dimly lit room, taking a seat in the first chair. There really wasn't anything to the test. They simply waved lights back and forth and tested the distance of your eye sight. As for the hearing test, all you had to do was listen to beeps, the most difficult part was doing both at the same time. They were testing the expanse our brain can stretch itself.

I passed all three tests, most people did, nothing to it. Rachel headed towards the hangar where the Armadillo was kept, Freddy spoke,

"Rache! Mess hall's this way."

"Oh, it's ok, I'm not hungry, I'm gonna go do a few touch ups on the Dillo."

Freddy nodded his head and waved a hand in understanding. Rachel entered the hangar and headed towards the Independence Armadillo. Last time AJ had taken it out, he had damaged it a little. She had the idea to place in more bolts in all of it's weak and vital points, it would make it stronger and so hard to destroy not even AJ Frost on his best day could do it. Rachel picked up a wrench and screw driver, she pooled the bolts around her as she slid under the Armadillo to repair the oil pipe, Rachel drilled in a few more bolts.

"You know you aren't supposed to skip lunch."

Rachel frowned, "Ah, must of have missed the memo."

Sharp dropped a small package by her side, she looked down momentarily, and grinned genuinely,

"Heh, MRE's. Thanks."

Sharp grunted a welcome in response. "What are you doing?"

"Fixing this oil pipe, AJ managed to damage the Dillo, So I'm strengthening it's plating, piping, and breaking systems."

"Were you authorized?"

"Harry said I needed to take a look at it. It needs to be fixed so I am fixing it." Responded Rachel in a low growl. She continued,

"I'm not trying to sabotage the mission, Colonel, I assure you."

"You can never be too careful."

Rachel pushed herself out from under the vehicle, a vicious glare crossing her face. Sharp was completely unaffected. Rachel stood up to get some more bolts, he was leaning against the table that held the bolts. She stood next to him gathering a few more, and then moving to the other side of him for the rest.

Before moving away, she lifted her eyes to meet his questioning, daring, and unforgiving gaze. She felt the insane fluttering within her stomach of the previous mentioned attraction. His dark blue eyes searched hers, Rachel leaned in closer and spoke quietly, her tone in a sort of hiss,

"The man was a traitor Colonel. He was involved with the trading of information with Osama Bin Laden, he gave the coordinates to one of the main top secret American bases in the middle east. In turn it was bombed and every bit of information we had gathered on Bin Laden was lost. I hadn't known at the time and until I was sent out with him as a battle buddy, did I find out. Of course, in a cross fire, he was shot, I left him for dead. I wasn't about to aid a traitor to the United States of America."

Rachel paused as she felt Sharp's gaze 'sharpen', she continued.

"The gun that killed him conveniently used the same gun as mine, used the same ammo and there I was set up. But when I presented that before them, they were stuck and decided they couldn't trust either way so they dishonorably discharged me."

"How am I supposed to believe that?" Sharp asked softly. His gaze still unwavering.

"Because it's the truth."

And that was her answer, feeling the heat rising in her face, she turned away. Jesus he had amazing eyes! Rachel picked up the screw driver again and went back to work, not allowing his presence to delay her. As she continued to work, she still felt his eyes on her, which irritated her. It was hard to concentrate, when he was fixated on her. Rachel spoke,

"Something else Colonel?"

There was no answer, Rachel looked at him. He was looking downwards now in thought, "Feeling a little down?"

Sharp looked up, his eyes flashing, "No." He spoke shortly.

Rachel smiled somewhat bitterly, she didn't respond as she screwed in the last few bolts of the reinforcement plating. Truman appeared at the Hangar entrance,

"Is it ready for a test run, Rachel?"

"Yes, sir."

"Great."

"Colonel, can you please take Rachel to the Air vacuum hangar?"

"Yes sir."

Rachel picked up the tools she had been using and set them down on the table, wiping her hands on her clothes as she exited the hangar. Sending a friendly smile Truman's way.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

"Neil Armstrong, 1969, bouncing on the moon. He is bouncing because there is less gravity up there than on earth. This will be similar to the asteroid. So watch it. Something gets launched off that asteroid with enough force it's gonna keep on going right into outer space."

Rachel crossed her arms over her chest, she stood between Bear and Rockhound and heard Oscar whisper,

"What is the deal? Is it just me, or is Watts really hot?"

Bear responded with a nod, "Yeah."

Rockhound nodded in agreement. Rachel shook her head with a small sigh trying to refocus her attention to Watts, she honestly was curious as to how to keep your ass on the ground. Bear and Oscar didn't stop there.

"So we have these new generation suits…" Rachel lost part of what she was saying due to Bear's deep voice. "…So you won't bounce like Neil Armstrong."

Bear snickered here and there, Rachel only catching crude parts of the conversation. Suddenly Watts snapped,

"Bear!"

Bear's had snapped in her direction, "Yes?"

"Do we have a problem?"

Bear thought for a split second and spoke cautiously, "No."

"Because I am trying to describe to you how these DAT's keep your ass on the ground. So if I were to kick you in the balls and you don't know how to work them, what happens to you?"

"I float away." Bear replied.

"Yeah." Watts responded.

Rockhound spoke, "And, uh, when do we start training for that?"

Eyes widening at his comment, my elbow launching into his gut, there was an, 'Oomph.' and his head snapped in my direction in bewilderment. I looked straight ahead at Watts, ignoring the snicker from Chick and Freddy. She paused, almost smiling and continued,

"Gentleman I'll give you 30 seconds to get your helmets on and the oxygen will be sucked out of his vacuum, and you will know what it's like to be in space. Go!"

Rachel grabbed her helmet quickly and snapped it on within five seconds, Oscar spoke,

"How'd you get it on so quickly?"

"Because I wasn't staring at Watts' ass the entire time."

Rockhound grinned, "So you were staring at her ass?"

I shot a satanic glare at Rock, "Rockhound, so help me God-"

"Ok! Ok! I was kidding!"

"Thought so."

Rachel thought she caught Watts looking back once, knowing she probably caught everything they had said. She nearly snickered at the thought, Rachel wasn't sure why, but the thought of Watts' bewilderment amused her.

The air began to be sucked out, Oscar panicked, "I don't have my helmet on yet!"

Harry shouted, "Well get it on!"

I slapped the top of Oscar's helmet fairly hard, there was a significant click and he settled down some,

"Thanks Rache."

"No problem. Do me a favor and learn how to put your frickin' helmet on, I won't be there the entire mission to baby sit you."

"How long are we supposed to be in here?" Max asked.

"Dunno." Chick responded.

"This could be a while." Rachel muttered.

Harry grunted in agreement.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

**Day 6**

"Ok Gentleman, so here's the flight plan. Now lets keep the laughter to a minimum I know this is not the scale."

"Both shuttles will take off Tuesday at 6:30 PM. Now 67 minutes later you are going to dock with the Russian space station to meet Cosmonaut and drophall. Who will refuel the shuttles with liquid 02; That's your fuel. Then you'll release and take a 60 hour trip towards the moon. Now we only have one shot of landing on this rock. And that's precisely when the asteroid passes by the moon. You'll then use lunar gravity and burn your thrusters, slingshotting you around the moon and coming up behind the asteroid. You'll be upward of 11 G's-"

Rockhound and Max shared a look before, Rock cut off Truman.

"Yeah, I remember this one. It's where the, uh, the coyote sat his ass down in a slingshot then he strapped himself to an Acme rocket. Is that - is that what we're doin' here?"

Harry spoke under his breath warningly, "Rockhound."

Rock showing he was genuinely concerned responded, "No, no, really, because it didn't work out too well for the coyote, Harry."

Rachel shook her head shooting Truman an apologetic look. Harry spoke over Rock,

"Hey, Rock. Knock it off."

Truman smiled, disguising his irritation, "Well, actually, we have a lot better rockets than the coyote."

Truman continued as things resumed silent, "Now when your finished with your road runner thrust move, You will be moving at 22, 500 miles per hour, coming around behind the asteroid, where we are hoping the tail debris will be cleared by the moon's gravity and you'll land right here."

"We've got separate landing sights for each time, softest part of the rock we can figure. At NASA we don't take chances, we double up on everything. First team to hit 800 feet, wins. Now this rock is big, it's dense, it's got some gravity; you can walk around, _but_ use your thrusters, so you can work easier." Rachel nodded her head in understanding as the NASA specialist spoke.

Suddenly Oscar spoke, "Ok, Mr. Truman, let's say that we actually do land on this. What's it gonna be like up there?"

Rachel smiled at Oscar's polite questioning. She looked downwards, knowing the rock will be of the most dangerous climates in the solar system. Truman responded,

"200 degrees in the sunlight, minus 200 in the shade, canyons of razor-sharp rock, unpredictable gravitational conditions, unexpected eruptions, things like that."

Oscar nodded his head, "Okay, so the scariest environment imaginable. Thanks. That's all you gotta say, scariest environment imaginable."

God I loved Oscar, With my face cast down, I smiled.

"Okay so you drill, you drop the nuke, and you leave. Now here's the key: You are going to remote detonate the bomb _before _the asteroid passes this plane 0 barrier. You do that and the remaining pieces of rock should be deflected enough to pass right by us."

I watched the screen intently as Truman continued.

"Now if the bomb explodes after 0 barrier…Games over."

I took a deep breath, my lungs felt as if they had completely deflated. This wasn't going to be easy, and knowing the entire world depended on us drilling this hole and dropping this nuke didn't make it any easier.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

Rachel wandered through the space station, trying to find Harry. He had the schedule for the tomorrow and she was curious, what they were up to. Rachel was nearing the front, she went to turn around until she heard a quiet, shy voice speak,

"Do you know where our daddy is?"

Rachel turned to see two little girls around 4 and 6 years old. She smiled kindly and crouched down to their eye level,

"Maybe, what's your daddy's name?"

The oldest girl smiled shyly, petting the toy pony's hair in her hand, she spoke proudly, " Colonel Willie Sharp."

Her voice was slightly slurred through the difficulty of the large words. Rachel grinned, at the adorable girls. "Oh yes, I know where you daddy is."

The littlest girl held her hands up, Rachel willingly picked her up gently, and held her hand out for the other girl. The older girl grasped her hand tightly as she led them through several corridors. Rachel spoke softly,

"So what's your name?"

The youngest responded quietly, "Jasmine."

And the older, who seemed to be opening replied happily, "My name's Katie!"

Rachel smiled, "You can call me Rachel."

Jasmine spoke softly, "Where's your daddy?" Her bright blue eyes looked straight into her curiously.

Rachel smiled again, "Oh, he's been asleep for a long time."

Katie looked up, "Our mommy has been too!"

Rachel felt her heart sink. She looked at them both apologetically, though they didn't understand. As they came up to Sharp's office, Rachel knocked.

"Who is it?"

"Rachel."

"Come in."

Rachel opened the door, when Sharp looked up a look of shock crossed his face. Rachel grinned,

"They are the most adorable kids I've ever seen, Colonel."

Katie squealed, "DADDY!"

Jasmine squirmed as Rachel let her down, both charging Sharp. Sharp laughed as they jumped into his lap. Rachel looked at him with a genuine smile, before backing out of the room to leave them be. She shut the door quietly. Rachel cringed, God his smile was gorgeous.

Rachel shook her head in hopelessness as she walked away to find Harry. But in all honesty, those were the most adorable kids she had ever seen.

Katie looked up at her father as Jasmine had fallen asleep. "Rachel looks at you the way mommy used to, daddy."

Sharp frowned, "How do you remember how mommy used to look at me?"

Katie yawned as she buried her face into his chest, "I don't want to ever forget mommy, daddy."

Sharp rocked gently in his chair, his mind shifting deep in thought as Katie drifted off. How had Rachel looked at him?

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

Rachel saw Harry storming the halls up ahead. Rockhound in tow. And the crew joining as he went on.

"Grace is old enough to vote Harry, she's old enough to drink, or get married if she wants to, she can get divorced…"

"Now let me tell you something, fellas. When I get back, when we get this job done, I will deal with this in my own way."

"C'mon Harry, it's not like I'm rooting for AJ here, I'm just saying Grace is not a little girl anymore."

"Hey Rock, wait a minute let me get a pencil and piece of paper, I want to jot down all of your older wisdom here."

Rockhound groaned, "You serious, Harry? C'mon while we were up trotting the globe, hunting mud, Gracie grew up to become a full blown hottie. Y'know."

Max spoke, "Harry-"

Rockhound cutting in, "She's a babe."

Max continuing, "She's fully hot, She's-"

Harry held up his hand, "Max. Max, okay! Your talking about my little girl, all right. I think I know who and what she is, okay?"

Oscar began to speak, "Okay, but Harry all we're sayin' is, we're talking about a kid who is coming into her own right now, and she is getting curious about her body, and she is exploring her sexuality. And you know what?-"

Harry looked at him as if he were crazy, "Oscar."

Oscar continued, "That's a natural thing."

"You are about five minutes older than Grace is, why should I listen to you?"

"Cause' I know what it feels like to have your hormones pulling you in just a, uh, thousand different directions. Y'know, you might wanna check this out."

I stared at Oscar as if he had grown two heads, he made hand motions as he spoke, and what he spoke made about as much sense as the whirling motions. Bear then spoke calmly,

"You know, no disrespect man, but we all helped raise her, So in part we all feel like a bunch of daddies here."

Max and Rockhound nodded their heads, Rock agreeing, "That's true."

Harry spoke stubbornly, "Well I'll be damned if I worked all these years so my little girl can marry a roughneck….She's better than that…Better than all of us."

I looked at Harry and then softly spoke, the rest of the crew quickly looking at me. They looked as if they hadn't realized I had arrived.

"You know Harry, she's not a little girl. She deserves love, and you can't work hard and believe you are choosing a certain type of person for her. As frickin' stupid as it sounds, you can't control love."

Harry looked at me, his jaw smoldering. He knew I was right, and he didn't like it. Chick rubbed a hand over his whiskery jaw, he nodded his head at me, I nodded back. Harry said nothing more.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

**Day 5**

"I am _not_ getting in that vehicle with AJ."

Truman smiled, "I thought you fixed it, extra strong?"

"I did. I still don't trust him. AJ is known to destroy the strongest of things, and actually dig beneath unknown surfaces. I would know, I was there when Harry shot him with a double barreled shot gun. There is no force on this earth he can not annoy and destroy."

Truman and Quincy laughed. AJ shooting Rachel a good natured glare from his position on top of the 'Dillo.

Harry shot her an annoyed smile, she returning with a cheeky grin. "Ok, fine. I'll ride with AJ."

Rachel moved out of the way, crossing her arms across her chest, "Good knowin' ya' Harry."

He turned and pointed at Rachel, "You. Shut up."

She laughed heartily as he climbed into the Armadillo. Rachel turned to go stand with Chick, she muttered,

"Get ready to run."

Chick muttered, "Don't you know it."

AJ began moving the vehicle, it was going smoothly at first until he started swerving, and then lost control while going straight at us. Chick started waving his arms and shouted rapidly,

"WHOA, WHOA, WHOA, WHOA!"

Rachel tackled Chick out of the way, they slammed into the ground. Rachel rolled over throwing the loose hair out of her eyes. She looked over at Chick, her eyes wide as AJ, continued weaving.

"Thanks."

"Eh, no problem, for a second there I thought you were just going to stand there waving your arms."

"Eh." Chick shrugged.

Rachel stood up lending a hand to Chick, he accepted it gratefully. Truman approached the two of them, and spoke,

"Once AJ, finally learns how to shut the damned thing off, can you haul the crew over to the weightless training facility?"

"Sure thing Sir." I responded quickly, with a good natured smile.

Chick grimaced, "This could be a while."

"Don't _you_ know it!"

Chick laughed.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

Harry had finally hit the off switch of the Armadillo and stopped it. As we all grouped together, Harry spoke loudly,

"Two shuttle teams, AJ will be running the drill team with Oscar, Bear, Noonan, Rache, on the independence. I'll run drill team on Freedom with Chick, Rockhound and Max. Once we land we have eight hours to get the job done. In order to split this rock on the fault line, we are going to have to drill to 800 feet. Lets get our game faces on. Now it's time for underwater simulation."

"Come on Independence, keep it up! Lets go, we are the only team here, we're the varsity team! Take it to eleven thousand!" AJ said over the intercom.

I worked quickly on my portion of the arm next to Bear, we glanced at each other once. Knowing AJ was rushing things.

"I'm gonna drop so more o2 in, Bear, Rache, take it up!"

Bear spoke, "I'm getting in more toil right now."

Harry spoke over the speaker, "Watch your time independence team."

"Harry, would you mind letting me run my own team?"

Bear spoke, "Slow it down AJ."

"Take it easy Bear. Just relax we can handle it." AJ said calmly.

Harry spoke, "AJ, your at 600 feet, your pipe is long, lets back the RPM's back down to 8000."

AJ shouted over the intercom, "We don't have time for 8000!"

Harry responded calmly, "AJ, take it back down, your going to snap the pipe, I don't want to blow this transmission."

"Damn it! 11000!"

"Slow it down AJ." Bear spoke firmly.

Oscar spoke encouragingly, "Bear! C'mon! Get on our team for a little bit!"

Bear whispered, "Harry are you listening to this?"

Harry responded quietly and in disappointment, "Yeah, I'm listening Bear."

Rachel spoke, "AJ! Slow. It. Down."

"You know what Rache, I'm running this team, let me do my job."

Rachel growled.

Harry shot Truman a look, he shook his head at AJ's behavior.

AJ spoke to Bear, "Hey! You don't work for Harry anymore! Ok! Your gonna listen to me and on the rock your are going to what I say. Now pull 700 and bring it up to 11000!"

Harry spoke calmly, "AJ, back it off, your going to blow the transmission."

"Hey Harry would you leave me to my team, please?"

Rachel and Bear spoke in unison, "AJ…"

"Bear, Rache, God damn it, I know what I am doing! C'mon she can handle it, she'll be fine!

Suddenly the transmission died, Oscar shouted, "SON OF BITCH!"

AJ spoke, "C'mon the computers wrong and you know it!"

Rachel growled as she was reaching the final brink of her patience. They were pulled out of the tank one by one, as Rachel got her helmet removed she quickly advanced on AJ, ripping through Bear's arms.

"AJ! GOD DAMN IT!"

AJ whipped around. Rachel shouted, "DON'T YOU DARE PULL A STUNT LIKE THAT AGAIN!"

AJ's eyes widened. Rachel was beyond rage, "If this had been real you could have killed all of us and every living being on the planet!"

AJ fired back, "Yeah, but that's just it, Harry's model is stronger!"

"IT DOESN'T MATTER AJ! You don't take chances because of your frickin' gut! That is a LAST resort! Do I make myself clear?!"

AJ growled, "Who do you think you are? I am the leader of this team!-"

"AJ, so help me God, if you pull another 'I'm the leader' card, I will castrate you. You and your pride is unbelievable! How could you let that get in the way of OUR lives, and the entire PLANETS?! Use your head AJ!"

Rachel turned her back to him and walked away. He stood there stunned by the lashing of her words. Harry was on his way out, when Sharp looked at Truman. Kimsey spoke,

"Now that's encouraging Truman."

Truman looked at Kimsey, nodding his head in agreement.

Harry stormed outside and began his assault on AJ.

"You wanna go home? Is that it? You wanna be fired?"

AJ argued, "No, I don't. My crew was doin' the right thing."

"Your crew?"

"Yeah."

"Your crew just blew the whole transmission AJ."

AJ replied, "Listen, that NASA computer is just playin' it safe. The machine you built - the rig - can do it"

"Shut up! Just shut up! Shut your mouth! Those men in that room have zero tolerence for showin' off, hot doggin', going by your gut instinct or you tryin' to be a hero. You got that? Say the words, A.J."

AJ growled, "I got it!"

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

Harry spoke, "I want my men to have tomorrow night off."

Truman frowned, "What do you mean 'off'?"

"I mean off, outta here, for at least ten hours. Then we'll go to Kennedy."

"Well there's no possible way we can do that, Harry. That is potentially a huge security risk. What if they talk? What if they get hurt?"

Harry responded simply, "If they're too burned out, then do the right thing. What if they get up there and they forget what they are fighting for? You see what's going on up there? Those boys are ready to snap. They didn't ask to be here, they got pulled off the street. For all we know, tomorrow night could be the last time they ever see earth, I don't think it's too much to ask to let them spend it with their families."

Truman continued, "Well listen there no possible way-"

Harry cut him off and turned to Sharp, "You got family, Colonel?"

"Two girls." He replied simply.

"Wouldn't you like to spend tomorrow night with your little girls?" Sharp didn't respond.

Harry turned back to Truman, "'I'm not asking ya', I'm telling ya'. Make this happen."

Harry didn't allow Truman to deny his request, he turned and walked away. Sharp looked at Truman,

"I agree with him."

Truman sighed and nodded his head.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

**Day 4**

Rachel sat in the conference room, watching the 'plan' over and over. She would make sure she knew it, plus there was nothing else for her to do. Rachel didn't have any blood related family members left, and was pretty sure she didn't have any living family members by marriage either.

Truman entered the room he looked at her with surprise,

"Rachel?"

She looked up with a small smile, "What are you doing here?"

"Had no where t go, thought I might as well 'study'."

Truman chuckled, "Well actually this works out pretty well for me, our Machinery sergeant's out, you wanna help fix some computers?"

Rachel grinned, "I would love to."

Truman smiled, "It's in the large room, something is screwing with the screen and the main computer, Colonel Sharp was about to go berserk last time I saw him with it."

Rachel stood up quickly, eager to be able to do something. "I'm right on it Sir."

Truman again smiled kindly as she left the room and headed for the large room. As she entered she saw Sharp before the computer, glaring at it in frustration. She laughed,

"Ya' know staring it down will not make it work any better."

His head snapped her direction as she made her way up. "Truman sent me in, what's the problem?"

Sharp spoke in relief, "The damned thing keeps flashing 'error not accessible through moderator.'"

Rachel opened the tower, pulling out a few wires and pulling them from their ports. The computer turned off instantly as she re-plugged them in. The computer started up again, she ran a restore files program through a few lines of HTML. The computer then hit start screen, and came back up on the larger screen.

Rachel spoke, "Ok, that should hold it, I'm not sure what happened, but since you couldn't do anything, I just restarted the entire thing. All files have been restored and reinforced. It should be good to go."

Sharp nodded his head, "Thanks."

"No problem Colonel." Rachel smiled.

His dark blue eyes searched her face, he felt a certain tension rising though it was type of tension he hadn't felt in a long time. For some strange reason, he felt his emotions suddenly began to pick up, and it was as if he was magnetized to her. He felt himself leaning in slowly, unable to resist such emotions and feelings, unable to resist the _attraction_.

It was when their lips connected, that it felt as if an explosion of fireworks had gone off inside his body. Rachel's breath hitched in her throat as he leaned in; deepening in the kiss. He was the one that had kissed her first right? It suddenly didn't feel so wrong, it felt completely right. Which was odd, she had never experienced any emotions this strong, but she had never met a man quite like Colonel Willie Sharp.

It was when the door to the large room opened, that they ripped apart; breathless. Bear stood there his mouth hanging open slightly, he slowly backed out of the room. Not uttering a word, nor sound. Rachel looked at Sharp, who was staring back at her, his face filled with mixed emotions.

"Well, this isn't awkward." Rachel spoke sarcastically.

Sharp smiled half-ly, when Rachel spoke,

"I'm going to go and stop Bear…Before he says anything."

Without another word, Rachel bolted from the room. Sharp stood there, slightly in shock of himself. But as he thought about it, he acted purely on his emotions, had he really grown feelings that strong for the oil driller? Sharp was confused but the more he thought about it the more it made sense.

It wasn't hard to catch him, Rachel spoke,

"Bear!"

He looked at her and stopped, "_You_ and Sharp?!"

"Shut up, please don't say anything to anyone!"

Bear shook his head, "Don't worry about that. I won't tell anyone Rache."

Rachel sighed with relief, "Thank you Bear."

He smiled, and then spoke seriously, "I won't need to say anything, Harry will pick it up on his own. It's a sixth father sense."

Hm. That was true, Harry had the freaky ability to pick up on hopefully and would be hidden things. She frowned to herself as they started walking down the corridor.

"Where's the rest of the crew?"

Bear laughed, "Dunno. All I know is Freddy, Oscar, Rock, and Max got arrested for fighting at a club."

"Figures." Said Rachel smiling. As they reached the two way hall, Rachel had to go one way and Bear had to go the other. Rachel spoke softly, her eyes glassing over with dread,

"Bear…Uh, I just wanted to say…if I don't make it-"

Bear looked at her seriously then, her voice choked up some as she continued,

"I-I, just wanted to say, I love ya' Bear. Always did. R-remember those games we used to play when I was a kid?"

Bear suddenly grabbed her in a tight hug, She buried her face in his arm. Bear replied,

"I love you too Rache."

Rachel mumbled, "I just wanted to tell you now, just in case I didn't get the chance."

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

**Another chapter, pretty fast, yes? Next chapter will be up soon, probably in the same time span, or quicker as/than this one. I hope you enjoyed it! Also, if you have not seen the movie Armageddon (1998) With Bruce Willis, I would HIGHLY recommend watching it. It is one of the greatest movies of all time without a doubt, and if you like this story, I'm pretty sure you'll like the movie x)**

**R T R:**

**Bunny94 - Your review made me smile, and made my day. Thank you very much!**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Sincerely,**

**Marinec**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: All original movie characters, lines, settings etc. Belong rightfully to their creators. I own nothing except Rachel Velsing.**

**Chapter 1 - T Minus 6 hours**

**A R M A G E D D O N**

**What are we made of?**

Chick slowly approached the house, a gorgeous, red haired woman opened the screen door simultaneously. Her face was questioning. Chick held a nervous grimace/smile. He spoke quietly, and near breathlessly, "Hey."

The woman crossed her arms, "What are you doing here?"

Chick shifted, his eyes holding an apologetic look, while his face was filled with love. "I-I was just passin' by on the uh, uh, I came-"

He was cut off as a young boy came from the side, with a toy car, impersonating it's noises. Diane; The woman immediately laid a hand on him. Chick stopped, not even bothering continuing. He stared at the young boy; his son with the utmost love a father could offer. He placed his hands in his pockets, and smiled, nearly tearfully.

The little boy's voice spoke, "Who's he?"

Diane shifted to her knees, "That man's a salesman. Would you go inside?"

The little boy turned and walked in through the screen door with a last glance at Chick, Diane spoke kindly,

"Thank you."

Chick looked at him with pride, and his gaze shifted back to Diane. "He got big." He smiled as he spoke, a knot forming in his throat, as he knew he may never see his son again, and his son may never get the chance to have a true life.

Diane shook her head, "You can't come around like this…the course says you can't….It confuses me."

"No, I, know, I just…I wanted to say, I'm sorry….about everything. And I got something coming up…somethin' kinda big…..You just might be proud of me."

Diane nodded her head in a confused manner. Chick spoke again,

"Would you do somethin' for me? Would you just, give him this? I-You-uh, You don't have to tell, w-who it's from, just…"

He spoke no more and slowly set down on the side walk, a toy space shuttle.

The knot in his throat grew bigger as he looked at the love of his life, and how he destroyed the greatest thing that had ever happened to him through stupidity. And through his own stubbornness and denial, he may never get the chance to have her and his son back.

Chick turned back, going back towards the street, the knot in his throat getting larger as the distance grew between them. He wished he had more time, to tell her how much he loved her. He wished there was more time to spend it with his son, the danger of this mission and the reality of it all finally hit him, and hit him hard.

Chick sat down in his car, shutting the door. He saw a photo in the passengers seat. It was him, Diane, and Richard; His son. His lips curled slightly as he tried to hold back the tears that threatened to fall, his lip trembled and one by one, the tears flowed.

His heart ached terribly for a lost love, and a son he may never get to see grow up… He clenched his fists as he leaned against the stirring wheel.

He was never going to see him family again.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

**Day 3**

By the next morning, _everyone_ knew something was going. A chunk of the rock they were trying to destroy had broken off and struck Shanghai; Killing 50,000 people. People were rattled, and they wanted answers. Somehow the media picked up on NASA's full scale Military alert, now even further alarmed. They pushed. And Truman gave.

"We have a special team of Astronauts that arrived in Florida this evening. NASA sent an emergency launch preparation in cooperation with Russian, Japanese, and French space agencies on the most massive joint space venture in history."

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

**Launch Day: T Minus 12 hours - Day 3**

Harry walked towards the old shuttle lift, the same place the space venture, APOLLO 1 lifted off from. She stared down at a puddle of water, crossing his arms he spoke softly,

"Gracie?"

She looked up, and slowly rose to her feet.

"I got your note…. What are you doing out here honey?" Harry said softly.

"Um…Just thinkin'." Grace replied.

Harry nodded his head, and spoke in a near whisper, "Yeah."

"I, um, want to apologize to you for-"

"No, Grace, stop. You don't have to apologize at all. I-I-shou- I shouldn't have dragged you around on all those oil rigs…I just…I don't think I did the right thing w-with you-"

Grace replied in a choked voice, "Your wrong. I love my life. I love everything about my life. And I don't blame you for my mother leaving. She left us both. I love you. And don't talk like your not comin' back…Promise me that you'll come back."

Tears welled up in Harry's eyes as Grace spoke, her voice becoming more hoarse as she went on. Harry replied in barely a whisper,

"Ok."

Grace responded, "Say 'I promise'."

"I promise, Grace." Grace grabbed him in a hug, pulling him as tight as she possibly could. She whimpered in fear, her lips trembling.

Harry whispered in a choked voice, "It's gonna be all right, Grace."

Grace then spoke softly, "If it's not too much trouble, can you please bring my fiancée home with you?"

Harry sighed, closing his eyes, "Jesus."

He didn't hate AJ, but he didn't want Grace to marry him. But then as he thought about Rachel's words, 'You can't control love.'...He knew she was right.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

They all sat in the 'Astronaut' room. Harry smiled somewhat bitterly, Bear rubbed a hand over his face. AJ remained solemn. Rachel's breath was shaky, but she remained completely calm, not allowing fear to show on her face.

Accepting fear, would only make her panic. She was going to get this job done, and by God she would do everything in her power to make sure it got done. Chick still held the picture in his hand, not willing to let it go.

Rachel looked up from her leaning position, to see Quincy holding her suit out to her. The name across the front, 'Rachel' and the special missions patch on the side, made her smile. "Thanks. Dr."

"No thank you." Quincy spoke seriously. He turned and walked away, Rachel looked down in thought. Everyone pulled on their own suits, no one spoke, and the air was filled with tension. Truman's words echoed in her head, 'The most massive joint space venture in history.'

Oscar had been very correct, it was historical, deep blue hero stuff.

As she pulled on her suit, she looked up. This was her crew, this was her family. And she wouldn't fail them. Suddenly empowered, by the sheer _need_ to save the ones she loved. She was ready to go. Sharp looked up from his position at a table, he looked at everyone in the room, his face completely solemn. His eyes met Rachel's.

She nodded in respect, and a good luck. He understood.

Her gaze turned to Oscar, who was examining his special missions patch. Rockhound simply tapped his foot nervously. A man stepped in the room,

"Astronauts."

This was it.

They exited the room, Harry stopping momentarily to hug Grace and for a quick kiss goodbye. Several men in white watched them leave the room, Rachel's eyes looked around her. Hopeful expressions on their faces, she looked straightforward, taking a deep breath to calm her nerves. Grace and AJ pulled themselves into each others arms. AJ leaned his head against her forehead.

I looked away with a smile, walking alongside Harry towards the exit. I heard AJ speaking in a singing tone,

"All my bags are packed…" Grace giggled lightly.

He continued, "I'm ready to go." Grace still smiling, albeit now was tearfully.

"I'm standin' here outside your door… I hate to wake you up to say goodbye. So kiss me-" He pecked her on the lips. "-and smile for me. Let me know you'll wait for me. Hold me like you'll never let me go-o."

Several of the crew members, stopped and watched them. And now AJ grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her in the air,

"Cause I'm leavin' ON A JET PLANE!" His voice squeaked from the effort that went to picking her up in a -as Freddy said- stiff ass Astronaut suit.

Harry, Chick, and I stopped to look back. I laughed out loud at the look on their faces, that was somewhat of a cross between a smile and 'What the hell'.

"…Don't know when I'll be back again!"

Bear suddenly joined in deeply, "Leavin' on a jet plane, I don't know when I'll be back again."

Rockhound looked around and withour hesitation jumped in with Bear, "Leavin' on a jet plane-" Max smiled broadly as he too began singing. "-I don't know when I'll be back again!" Grace laughed happily.

Harry muttered, "That boy doesn't take anything seriously."

Chick responded, "Yeah, Reminds me of a guy I used to know."

Harry shot Chick a look, and Chick returned in.

As they were told it was time to go. Bear, Rock, and Max left and continued singing as AJ spoke softly,

"I'm marryin' you."

Grace grinned with a kiss, "You bet your ass you will."

AJ chuckled happily, sending her a smile as he left. They lined up at the door, Rachel took another breath, her lips curling in anticipation and fear. Harry was staring straight ahead seemingly, emotionless. Though Rachel could see right through it, she whispered softly,

"We'll get the job done, Harry."

He looked at her, his eyes flickering hopefully. The door lifted a line of Officers snapped their heads to the right. Camera's went off, and chants were sung. Everyone cheered.

As we walked on to the carpet, all at once the Officers looked straight, snapped to attention and saluted. Harry nodded his head in their direction. They walked down the carpet, many news casters stopped, and stared. Stared at the people that were in a race for all of humanity.

Rachel glanced at Sharp, and him looking to her. They looked straightforward, sharing no looks, no words, nothing but the simple understanding of the great human mind.

And as we reached the middle the crowd; NASA employees, stood on their feet and raised a roar of cheers. And as we exited to the outside world, a massive applause exploded, along with whistles, and cheers. Everyone there and around the world in support of us, oil drillers.

Richard; The son of Chick was lying in the floor. Watching the TV as the Astronauts left the bus, and suddenly he spoke,

"Mom! That salesman is on TV!"

Diane looked at the TV, and she dropped the phone entirely, her mouth opening in complete shock.

Diane held Richard in her arms, and she spoke softly,

"That man is not a salesman, that's your daddy."

They stepped inside the list, she found it hard to breathe, knowing, that this may be the last time she ever set foot on earth again. They all stepped out, and a NASA man spoke while pointing,

"Freedom Crew, Independence crew."

The two crews went our separate ways, Rachel shot a final look at Rockhound, Max, and Chick. Rockhound merely nodded, Max looked positively sick. And Chick waved, she nodded her head and turned back, walking towards Independence's Shuttle. Rachel passed by Harry who was speaking with AJ.

"How ya' feelin'?"

AJ responded, "Uh…Good, y'know considering I've never been this scared in my entire life. I-uh, y'know."

Harry nodded his head, "Listen, once you get up there, Your gonna be on your own. If anything should happen-"

AJ interjected, "I know Harry, I'll try not to disappoint ya'." Harry laughed as AJ began walking away with a smile.

"Don't kill yourself kid." Harry said in a fatherly way, with a smile on his face.

AJ smiled and turned onto deck of shuttle independence. Harry then spoke,

"Rache."

She backed up a few steps, "Yeah?"

"I approve."

He nodded his head, a smile forming over his lips. Rachel looked completely clueless, until she realized what he was talking about. Her eyes widened. He had figured it out. Harry laughed heartily as he turned and walked away to Shuttle Freedom's deck.

Rachel shook her head in complete disbelief, as he had, without flaw derived something had happened between her and Sharp. And she thought she was being pretty discreet too. And that only proves, nothing gets past Harry Stamper.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

**Launch Day: T Minus 2 hours - Day 3**

"How ya' doin' Oscar?" AJ spoke.

Oscar replied complicatedly, but showing he was excited, not truly afraid, "Great, I got that "excited/scared" feeling. Like 98% excited, 2% scared. Or maybe it's more - It could be two - it could be 98% scared, 2% excited but that's what makes it so intense, it's so - confused. I can't really figure it out."

He then spoke to the NASA Tech, "Will you make mine really tight, 'cause I don't wanna fall out. I mean, almost to the point of cutting off circulation."

I smiled, AJ then looked at me,

"How ya' holding up Rache?"

"Fine, not excited, terribly afraid…trained to drill oil and fix computers, and here I am going into space with fellow crew members to save the world."

Freddy laughed. And then Oscar spoke,

"But you should be used to that!"

I shot him a look of complete disbelief, "Are you aware of what happened in any of the wars? I protected people to help a country, not to save the world."

Oscar grinned, I couldn't help but smile. Nothing could bring him down, not even the potential end of the world.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**\

**Launch Day: T Minus 1 minute - Day 3**

We heard a voice speak over the intercom, "All crew members, _close_ and _lock_ your visors."

The man began speaking to the pilots, and then suddenly Truman spoke,

"Ok gentlemen, your our warriors up there. God be with you. You're all already heroes, just sit back and enjoy the ride.

"T Minus 20 seconds!"

Suddenly the shuttle began shaking as it revved up, and prepared for launch. Rachel listened as the countdown began,

"3...2...1"

The shuttle shook rapidly and violently as it lifted off, the entire space craft vibrating as it gained speed through earth's atmosphere. She felt the G's build, and press against her body, she suddenly felt a wave of excitement. She was on the most historical journey and mission in the history of humanity, and she was chosen to do the job. She had been chosen to help save the world, and that was exactly what she was going to do.

She couldn't and wouldn't allow this asteroid to defeat man, to defeat her.

She breathed deeply forcing herself to stay calm as they began to enter space. The shuttle began twisting as it went faster and faster, Rachel closed her eyes momentarily, taking in all the forces and the rapidly changing environment.

They had passed through the 2nd zone of the Earth, Colonel Davis shouted,

"HOUSTON! THIS IS A KICK ASS RIDE!"

She grinned although fear lurked in the back of her mind. And suddenly it all stopped, the violent shaking, the vibrating, everything went calm as they leveled out. They were in space.

We pulled our visors up, AJ was looking around in wonder,

"Oh my God."

Oscar spoke enthusiastically, "This is space! Course, we're just in the beginning part of space, we-we haven't even got to _outer_ space yet!"

Rachel heard Colonel Davis speak, "Roger Houston, we've got visual on the Russian space station. Initiating retro burn."

Truman responded, "Remember the Russian space station has been up there for eleven years, most of us don't have cars that old. Now that cosmonaut on board has been on that tin can for 18 months…_alone._ So don't be surprised if he's a little…off."

Tucker looked back, "All right crew, lets exit these flight suits."

As we got out of ours seats we started drifting around. Bear laughed deeply and patted AJ on the cheek, making him grin.

Sharp turned and spoke, "All right gentlemen, we're gonna dock in a minute. Now the Russian space station aspired rockets that will let us work faster, and it's gonna make it queasy, so prepare yourself."

As Sharp spoke Rockhound quietly, 'wee'd' as he pushed Harry's foot, making him spin. Rockhound looked at Sharp,

"Well it's about time, I haven't thrown up in about an hour."

Harry laughed heartily.

Colonel Davis turned to the Independence crew, "Locks are engaged, fuel teams, lets go."

Rachel exited right behind Oscar, she heard Davis speak,

"Colonel."

Sharp raised his hand to his head in a lazy salute as they reached the center. Davis spoke,

"Where is he?"

Tucker speaking loudly, "Anybody home?!"

Suddenly a man's head dropped out of a hole in the top of the tunnel like area, AJ jumped in shock as he stared at the man,

"Welcome everybody."

He dropped down in a front flip. Chick using his arm as a defensive tool if he so happened to hit him.

"I am not gas station! This is a sophisticated laboratory! I am in charge! So do not be touching _anything_."

He started to head down one of the tunnel ways, he spoke, "I need one, tiny…You." He pointed at AJ. AJ in turn pointed at himself, "Me?"

"Go with him." Gruber spoke quickly.

"Yeah I need you, hurry up! Hurry up! C'mon…."

The Russian man trailed off as they headed down the passageway. Sharp spoke,

"All right, Tucker, Colonel Davis take to the hoses, Independence crew grab one and take it to your shuttle, Freedom do the same."

Sharp took off down the tunnel way, AJ had just gone with the Russian man, Tucker and Davis started down one way calling us along to follow them.

Harry was looking around at all the technical ware of the space station, Rockhound was looking at a picture on one of the computer screens. Suddenly Andropov came storming out of no where and spoke,

"Don't touch my uncle! You know? He's a genius of my family."

Andropov suddenly went off on a whole thing about bombs, Rachel couldn't quite understand due to his accent. Rockhound looked at him as if he was crazy, he, Harry and her sharing a look. Watts came in,

"Check your hoses we are getting thermal variation. Stamper lets look at the couplings back on the shuttle."

Chick came in, Rachel nodded her head in a greeting.

Suddenly there was a flickering, and a sound began to echo. Rachel looked around in alarm, Andropov looked at one of the camera's as we saw AJ flipping out down the shaft. Rachel straightened as Andropov launched down one of the tunnels, Rachel not allowing herself to stay behind and do nothing sprinted after him.

Sharp ran past and stopped, "What's going on?"

"Big leak, big leak! GET YOUR MEN BACK TO THE SHUTTLE!"

Rachel followed Andropov, Sharp yelled,

"VELSING!"

She didn't stop but continued, they reached the shaft, she looked down AJ screamed in frustration,

"THIS IS THE LEVER!"

Rachel looked down, Sharp launched into the room, she hissed to Andropov,

"We need to get him out of there!"

Andropov echoing, "COLONEL WE NEED TO GET HIM OUT OF THERE!"

Sharp looked down the shaft, he shouted, "AJ! COME ON!"

Sharp looked at Rachel, "Find Davis and Tucker get them and the crew onto your shuttle! Go!"

Rachel looked down the shaft, "I'm not leaving with AJ!"

Sharp growled, "That is an order! We'll get AJ!"

Rachel hesitated, but decided she could trust him. She sprinted down the tunnel, shouting,

"GET OUT OF HERE! GO, GO, GO! INTO THE SHUTTLE NOW!"

Rockhound and Max immediately got on the move.

Sharp stayed at the pod, yelling, "AJ! HURRY UP!"

Sharp suddenly grabbed Andropov, "IT'S TOO LATE, BACK TO THE SHUTTLE!"

Andropov screamed, "NO!"

"IT'S GONNA BLOW!"

Tucker grabbed Sharp now, and pulled him away, Sharp having no choice but to leave them behind. It was only them or everyone.

There was a large explosion sending them all off balance. Rachel reached the center where suddenly Sharp appeared she yelled,

"WHERE'S AJ?!"

She tried to go back down the tunnel, Sharp grabbed her around the waist to prevent her from going any further, Tucker having to hold Chick back who was too trying to go back.

Rachel yelled, "I'M NOT LEAVING AJ!"

Chick shouted, "WAIT A MINUTE, WAIT A MINUTE, WE GOT MEN IN THERE!"

Tucker shouted, "OPEN THAT DOOR AND WE'LL ALL DIE!"

"AJ!" Rachel shouted, she resisted against Sharp's hold.

The ship rocked again with another explosion of a fuel pipe.

Sharp pulled her further from the tunnel's door, and pushed her into the pod area. Harry shouted,

"Where's the rest of team?!"

"We're not leavin' without AJ!"

"AJ'S GONE!" Shouted Sharp.

"IT'S TOO LATE!"

Harry fought viciously against Sharp's and Chick's grip. Bear shouted,

"RACHE! COME ON!"

Alarms echoed across the space sation as all chaos had been let loose, the station rocked violently, twisting in the air from the force of another exploding fuel pipe.

Bear grabbed Rachel, pulling her down another tunnel towards their own pod. He shouted,

"AJ'S STILL IN THERE!"

"WE CAN'T SACRIFICE OURSELVES FOR A DEAD MAN, WE HAVE A PLANET TO SAVE!" Davis responded.

Rachel spoke, "NO! Hold on! AJ's coming!"

Bear and Oscar slammed the door shut.

The station shook violently as the top half exploded, Chick strapped himself in, when he looked up, his eyes widened at the huge chunk of space station falling straight towards them,

"Whoa!"

As it continued to fell, Chick spoke rapidly,

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! COLONEL THAT THINGS COMING RIGHT FOR US, WE GOTTA GO!"

Sharp pushed several buttons, moving as quickly as possible and just as the large piece of station inched closer, they pulled away. It smashed devastatingly into the bottom half of the station.

As the shuttle started and began it's ready launch, AJ appeared at the door with Andropov screaming,

"WAIT! OPEN THE DOOR! LET US IN!"

Bear and Oscar yanked the door open, allowing them both in.

Davis shouted, "CLOSE THE DOOR NOW!"

The entire station began a domino effect in explosion. We all strapped in, as the flames licked the shuttle, we launched just as the explosion hit. Our ship rocked but never the less took off, We were all right.

Freddy who was floating around spoke, "Pretty intense, huh?"

Andropov responded, "That's why I told you _touch nothing_. But you're bunch of cowboys!"

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

**T Minus 17 hours - Day 1**

Truman spoke over the intercom, "Well guys, it's time to suit up I guess, uh, we've got a big day."

Rachel had gotten into her suit fairly quick, she sat down quickly, strapping herself in. "How many G's?"

Davis replied, "About 9 G's for 11 minutes."

"Holy shit."

Davis chuckled, "Yeah."

AJ spoke, "So is this the part where we hold on real tight, and hope we don't die?"

Oscar was bobbing his head looking around, Rachel grinned,

"It doesn't make it anymore interesting to 'bob' your head, Oscar."

Oscar looked at her, "Oh, it just feels funny."

Freddy muttered sarcastically, "Yeah, lets do something because it feels funny."

Rachel and Bear laughed.

Davis spoke, "Stand by for lunar roll."

Tucker began shifting the gears, and raising the thrusters, "High inclination orbit."

Davis turned and spoke, "Now men this is what we trained for! NOW SUCK IT UP!"

Rachel grinned, "Man, I'm liking you more and more Colonel."

The shuttle began to shake rapidly as the engines roared louader and louder. Gaining speed they were shoved to the back of their seats.

AJ shouted, "IS THIS SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE THIS?"

Oscar spoke calmly, "Don't worry this is normal!"

Rachel heard Bear shout from behind, "How would _you_ know?!"

She chuckled weakly, as she was slammed against the back of her chair, and her eyeballs felt as if they were sucked to the back of her head. In all honesty, it was extremely uncomfortable and on a level of somewhat pain.

As they began counting up the speed AJ shouted,

"THIS IS REALLY HEAVY MAN!"

Oscar then shouted, "THIS ISN'T NORMAL!"

AJ replied through gritted teeth, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN THIS ISN'T NORMAL?!

"THIS IS WAY WORSE!"

"I'M NOT GONNA MAKE IT!" Max shouted. Chick looked at him with raised eyebrows as Rockhound shouted,

"AH, WE'RE GONNA DIE!"

As they began groaning through gritted teeth, that led to shouts of pain, Rachel held it all in. She felt as if her lungs were being compressed upon, making it difficult to breathe, her bones were flat against the seat and the rest of her felt like it had been stripped away.

Rachel faintly heard Andropov laughing, she normally would have shook her head if it wasn't pinned against the seat.

Suddenly Davis shouted, "22,500!"

And everything went calm, the shuttle's engines roared down, the shuttle in general slowed down. She swallowed breathlessly as she was finally allowed to lean forward a bit,

"Holy. Shit."

Tucker sent her a grin.

"We've got visual of the target."

And suddenly it was there. The massive rock strung out ahead of them leaving trails of ripped space atmosphere. Rachel stared at it as Oscar muttered, "Oh my God."

Davis turned, "Everybody hang on, this could get a little rough."

Davis spoke, "Engaging grids upon us."

He then shouted as few small rocks hit the shield, "HOLD ON!"

Sharp spoke, "God damn, we've got debris!"

Watts turned a few controls, "We're turning up, dropping off artillery boosters."

Tucker shouted, "Houston! We've got a lot of debris!"

Davis continuing, "We're comin' in hot!"

Tucker shouted, "THERE'S TOO MUCH DEBRIS, WE'VE GOT PULL UP!"

Davis shouted, "NEGATIVE!"

Davis spoke, "WE'RE HIT!"

Truman dropped his coffee cup, it smashing against the floor. His knees became weak as he stared in fear at the screen, and listened the terrible screams of his men.

Rachel opened her eyes in alarm, her hands went for her straps. Though she hesitated, waiting until she knew help was needed.

Davis shouted, "MAYDAY MAYDAY! WE'VE LOST MAIN THRUSTERS, GET EM' BACK UP!"

Tucker continued, "MAYDAY SIR MAYDAY! WE'VE LOST OUR SIESTE THRUSTERS! MAYDAY!"

Davis shouted, "HOUSTON CONTROL WE ARE GOING DOWN!"

"FREEDOM DO YOU READ ME? WE ARE GOING DOWN!"

Rachel ripped her straps off, stumbling lightly as jumped towards Davis,

"What's been shut down?! I can fix them!"

Davis looked at her, "No! There's too much debris out there!"

"It doesn't matter I'll die either way!"

Davis shook his head, "We're going down, there is nothing we can do!"

Rachel growled, "MOVE OUT OF THE WAY COLONEL!"

She pulled on the head set and shouted, "HOUSTON WE AREN'T DONE YET!"

Truman looked up, mostly in shock. Clark looked at him as did Quincy.

As her voice shouted over the intercom, Harry shouted,

"YES! I KNEW SHE WOULD DO IT!"

Watts looked confused, as Sharp spoke, "Velsing has taken over Independence piloting."

Rachel began turning many controls, she shouted,

"Tucker! Turn main thrusters all the way up!"

"There broken!"

"Doesn't matter, get them on, it might give us a little lift!"

"HANG ON INDEPENDENCE!"

They were spiraling out of control, she shouted,

"MAYDAY! FREEDOM WE ARE OUT OF CONTROL AND HEADED STRAIGHT TOWARDS YOU!"

Rachel growled through gritted teeth as she pulled hard on the controls, the main thrusters provided a little kick as they barely skated over Freedom's shuttle.

Harry shouted, "WHOA!" Jumping lightly in his seat. As Independence shuttle skimmed across their shield.

Chick looked on fearfully, and Rockhound squirmed in his seat. Sharp shouted,

"THEY'RE GONNA HIT!"

Rachel looked down at the radar, and pulled hard on the controls as she saw a massive rock, she spoke through gritted teeth,

"COME ON!"

They passed above the rock, as the tip scraped the underside of the shuttle tearing away part of the ship. Rachel screamed,

"FUCK!"

Davis shouted, "EVERYBODY GO TO YOUR LIFE SUPPORT! LOCK YOURSELVES IN THE CARGO BASE!"

Rachel yanked hers on, it clicking with attachment. They began descending downwards, Rachel shouted,

"SHIT, SHIT, SHIT! WE'VE LOST OUR THRUSTERS!"

"HOUSTON WE ARE GOING DOWN! WE'VE LOST ALL CONTROL!" Davis shouted.

Rachel spoke, "ROGER THAT HOUSTON! I CAN'T GET THE THRUSTERS BACK!"

Sharp looked at shuttle independence with dread, him and Watts shared a look. Oscar shouted,

"I CAN'T GET IT ON!"

Rachel shouted, "GET THAT FUCKING HELMET ON OSCAR, OR SO HELP ME GOD-"

The ship rocked with another hit, "HOUSTON WE'VE BEEN HIT AGAIN!"

Davis spoke calmly, "Good luck Freedom."

Rachel looked at the two of them, Davis spoke, "You're a brave woman, Velsing."

Rachel chuckled, "Nah, I'm scared shitless, Colonel!"

She pulled hard on the controls, as a huge rock came into view. The shield began cracking, Tucker spoke,

"Oh my God this is it."

Rachel slammed her fist down on the controls, and suddenly one of the thrusters powered up. Rachel shouted in excitement,

"YES! HOUSTON WE'VE GOT ONE OF OUR THRUSTERS BACK!"

Davis shouted, "VELSING GET INTO THE CARGO LOCK!"

And then they saw the rock. Rachel spoke knowing there was no way of escaping something of that magnitude within a few hundred meters.

"THAT IS A BIG ASS ROCK!"

"HOUSTON! MAYDAY, MAYDAY! HOUSTON WE ARE GOING DOWN!" She spoke in finality as the rock hit, she flung herself over Oscar who was still struggling. The terrible sound of it ripping through the shuttle's interior rang in her ears. She screamed,

"HOUSTON!"

Truman stared at the screen, as the rock ripped through the camera's the radio signal went dead with the final scream, 'Houston!' By Rachel.

Everyone sat in a solemn silence.

The radio signal switched to Freedom, Harry shouted, "SHARP WHAT THE HELL IS THAT, IS THAT COLONEL DAVIS?!"

Truman's legs gave out, he sat down in the chair, staring at the screen.

The body hit their shield, Harry got a glimpse of his face, and it was.

Sharp stared as the shuttle was torn to pieces, the debris continued to rock the ship though it was less now. He swallowed painfully.

He then spoke, "Houston! Independence is a dead stick, they're not gonna make it."

Not even Rachel…He ripped the thoughts from his mind, it had only been an attraction, and albeit he was hurt by her death, he couldn't let it get in the way of saving the entire planet.

Sharp watched as the shuttle slammed into the rock,

"Houston, Independence has gone down."

Their shuttle began to rock violently, Sharp spoke,

"When I touch this baby down, full reverse thrust!"

"Fire on your left! Sharp!"

Sharp shouted, "HANG TIGHT, HANG TIGHT!"

"Houston, we overshot our landing field! We overshot our landing field!"

Rockhound shouted, "OH NO!"

The crew shouted in fear as they touched down and the shuttle began sliding and veering. Harry remained quiet.

Within a few seconds, the ship slowed to a stop. Max was breathing heavily, his face covered in sweat. Harry looked around, a grim look on his face as he made sure everyone was all right.

"Initiate system right system check." Sharp spoke.

"Make sure we can still get off this rock."

Watts replied, "Well our electrical system is screwed, I'm going to back up. Fuel seals check, engine seals check. Pressure seals check."

Sharp turned, "Anyone hurt?"

Rockhound spoke breathlessly, "W-where's- Where's the other shuttle? What happened to the other shuttle?"

"Independence is off the grid." Sharp said in a more solemn voice. He stood up walking towards the back.

Rockhound spoke, "Off the grid?! What are you a frickin' cyborg, what does that mean?!"

Gruber bent down and spoke, "Hey, you saw Davis yourself right? They're gone."

Max whimpered, "Bear…"

Harry spoke softly, "Let's just ask God to take care of our friends."

As his eyes began to water, he rolled his head to prevent them from falling,

"May they rest in peace."

Chick spoke,

"Amen."

Harry turned, "We've got eight hours, lets get this job done and get home."

"All right lets get the tools unpacked and fire up the armadillo."

"We're not gonna get a damn thing on the inertia net system." Sharp said towards Rockhound who was staring at it.

"I know where we are." Rockhound responded.

Sharp walked towards him, "Please step away….Radio signals dead!"

Watts spoke, "Flipping the back up generator. Radio signals gonna be cut in half until we get main power back."

Rockhound slapped some papers down, "We're in segment 202, lateral grid 9, site 15H32 - give or take a few yards. Captain American here blew the landing by 26 miles!"

Sharp craned his neck and spoke, "How the hell do you know that?"

Rockhound gave him a completely serious look, "Because I'm a genius."

Watts came in and spoke, "The gauges will not read; they're all peaked like we're plugged into some magnetic field."

Rockhound rolled his eyes, and spoke sarcastically, "Well, who on the spaceship wants to know why?"

Gruber looked at him curiously, "By all means."

"The reason we were shooting for grid 8 was because thermo graphics indicated that grid 9 was compressed iron ferrite. Which means you landed us on a goddamn iron plate!"

Sharp looked at him and then spoke, "All right we all heard the man, lets roll out the remote satellite link, we need that radio."

There were electrical explosions, from side to side of the ripped shuttle. Pipes hung down, and still swung from the impact of ship. Small fires flickered from the fuel. And suddenly a hand rose weakly, and slowly the piece of shuttle scrap was lifted as AJ stood up wearily.

He pushed his way through the destruction, and stopped when he saw Oscar. He grabbed him and immediately tears flowed.

"Oscar! OSCAR!"

He whimpered staring down at his longtime friend, "HELLO! ANYONE? IS THERE ANYONE THAT'S ALIVE! SOMEBODY HELP ME!"

Suddenly Andropov screamed, "AJ!"

AJ looked up in hope, "WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"I'm here."

AJ slowly let go of Oscar and walked towards Andropov, "There's no one else? There's no one else."

"I know."

And suddenly, Bear's deep voice rang out, "Ah, man."

They turned quickly. AJ's voice shouted, "BEAR! Where are you!?"

"AJ? AJ!" Bear's voice was questioning, then turned to a breathless laugh of relief, of somebody else being there, alive.

"I'm on the shuttle man!"

Andropov leaned over and began pulling the pipes off of Bear. AJ, bent down and pulled him out,

"You all right?"

Bear responded, "I'm so glad to see you man. I've never though I would've been so happy to see your ugly face!"

---

The ramp lowered slowly, Harry stepped down first looking around, "Wow." he murmured.

Sharp shouted, "Down here! In the valley!"

Rockhound looked around, he frowned, "This place is like Dr. Seuss's worst nightmare."

Sharp began speaking, "Lets get the remote satellite. We'll get better reception up there.

"Bring that down." Chick's voice rang out.

"Watch yourself through here Max, we got a couple of big fishers." Harry said calmly.

"To the left, bring it to the left!"

"Rockhound you come on down here and take some readings down on a flat spot." Harry said opening the radio satellite.

Sharp spoke, "How's the iron?"

"God I hate knowing everything." Rock muttered.

"We couldn't have picked a worst spot to drill."

Harry walked towards him, "Well your pretty much guaranteed it's not gonna be thicker than fifty feet."

"How you figure that?" Rock asked curiously.

Harry looked at him, "Because if it is, we're screwed."

Max lowered the arm, and it began striking the rock. "Max, you good?" Harry said as he moved along side the Armadillo.

"Yes, just makin' a hole."

"Turn it around!"

"Friggin' outerspace."

Max lowered the arm slowly, as the razors began turning faster and faster, it shredded through the rock. Harry spoke,

"We're in!"

Rockhound muttered, "There's some stuff in here I ain't never seen."

Max shouted, "All right, Let's punch it down!"

The arm began to shake violently, and suddenly something shot out. Rockhound moved to the side, as Max spoke,

"Hey Harry did you see that?"

"Yeah Max, I see it, I see it, What is it?"

"We lost a pipe on the bend."

"Alright, back it off, back it off!"

Max growled, "God damn it!"

"Good, good, hold her there."

They stared at the severly damaged blades of the driller. Rockhound spoke,

"Wow, this is a goddamn greek tragedy."

"You've all seen a broken drill before." Harry spoke.

Chick looked up, with raised eyebrows, "Not after ten feet!"

Rockhound looked at him, "I've never seen one."

"Well now you've seen one." Harry replied.

Chick spoke, "What do you want?"

"Unpack the judged."

----

"There! That!" AJ said pointing at the Armadillo.

Bear spoke, "It's still together."

AJ muttered, "Rache reinforced it three times with extra bolts and steel plating. She was gonna make sure nothing could destroy it."

"We're only three Astronauts left now." Andropov spoke.

AJ stood ontop of the Armadillo, "We're not Astronauts, we're oil drillers, we're not even supposed to be here."

Andropov looked at him with a frown, "What? Your not astronaut?"

AJ ignored his question, "I'm getting us out of here, get in."

"Why?" Andropov continued.

"Just get in the Armadillo, I have an idea!" AJ said forcefully.

----

Watts still sat at the radio she spoke, "Houston, this is Freedom, do you copy? Houston, do you copy? Freedom shuttle has landed."

She heard some static on the end, and realized she was finally getting through. She continued,

"Houston, this is Freedom do you copy?"

She heard Truman sigh as he spoke, "Ah, thank god we still have you Freedom."

"Don't lose them Lennoy!" Truman called out.

Watts shouted, "SHARP I'M GETTING SOMETHING!"

"Houston! This is Freedom, we have landed safely!" Watts said.

She continued, "Our coordinates are 16h-32."

Truman turned, "Ok, I want to know everything we can about that location!…Get it before we lose them!"

Sharp appeared and began speaking, "Houston, we've got some mechanical difficulties."

Truman turned, "Walter get mechanical on that."

"But we have commenced drilling."

Sharp began to cut out, his next words being nothing but static. Sharp spoke,

"Houston? Houston? We lost them, get them back. Gruber! We need that hookup." Sharp turned and walked out of the shuttle, Watts returned to working on the radio signal.

----

AJ unleashed fire on the side of the broken down shuttle, the .50 caliber bullets ripping through it. He revved the Armadillo up and shouted,

"Hold on!"

They launched through the weakned side easily and began on the move to find the other shuttle.

----

"I see it! All right, get ready Max! Thread it!"

The drill began spinning locking the new razors in place. Harry and Chick pulled up the locks in place. Max shouted,

"Guys the clock is ticking! Lets go, go, go, go!"

"All right good! Drag and loose! Keep it at 25! Lets kick a little asteroid butt!" Harry shouted.

"All right Chick give me more torque on the turbine, huh."

"Max I need some more power out here!"

"All right Boss!" Max replied.

"Turn it to the fourth and drop the hammer!"

"Lets drill through this dirt!" Max said with a grin pulling down a lever.

"C'mon boys we gotta hop, we're falling behind!"

Harry continued, "Dig, dig, dig! Chew this iron bitch up!"

"Chick the trains stuck!" Max spoke.

Chick shouted, "HARRY!"

Harry turned, "What is it?"

"Chick come on help! At least decline-"

Harry cut him and started waving his arms, Chick spoke through gritted teeth,

"Ok…this things not movin'."

Harry shouted, "NO, NO, NO, SHUT IT DOWN!"

The transmission pipe then exploded, Chick was sent flying. He slammed into the ground heavily. Max spoke solemnly,

"This is not working out Harry."

Rockhound moved over Chick, "Oh! You'll all right?"

"Blew the tranny….blew the tranny."

Harry murmured, "Come on God, just a little help, that's all I'm asking."

Max muttered, "I think we're close enough he might've heard ya'."

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

**T Minus 6 hours - Day 1**

Within the wreck, there was complete silence except for the crackling of the flames. The shuttle wreckage creaked and moaned as parts if it collapsed. As if by some miracle, something stirred. Something alive.

Rachel whimpered in pain, she rolled over. She had been completely thrown from the shuttle and lied before it. It was because the rock had ripped the whole top off, she survived. Rachel struggled to her feet, her eyes skated over the shuttle's parts everywhere.

She stumbled into the cockpit, and there lied Oscar. Her lip trembled as she grabbed onto the wall for support, she spoke quietly,

"Oh…Oscar."

Her mind flashed back to just before the crash landing, before the rock had completely shredded the ship.

_Rachel flung herself on top of Oscar. Tears rolled down his face, he knew. Oscar screamed over the roaring engine, and the rock shredding, _

"_I LOVE YOU RACHE!"_

_And just before the rock had shredded through her, he threw her off of him._

Rachel swallowed the knot in her throat, Oscar had saved her life, even though she was trying to save his. She walked towards him slowly…almost fearing to see him. His visor was severly cracked, and his face was bloody from chips of glass.

His eyes were closed peacefully, he had gone, doing exactly what he had signed up so enthusiastically to do.

"_Man, this is - this is historic. Guys, this is, like, deep blue hero stuff! Of course I'm in." _

Rachel closed her eyes as tears fell slowly, she collapsed to her knees by his side, laying her head on his chest. She whimpered, "I love you too, O-Oscar."

She stared at him as she slowly rose to her feet, "I'll never forget what you did for me, what you did for this world Oscar.-" She choked in a sob as she smiled tearfully, "You're a deep blue hero, Oscar."

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

**I love Oscar so much xP I was so sad when he died. I had to redo this chapter too, a lot. I just want to get the characters right, I want to do them justice xP But anyways, one of the sadder, and longer chapters, actually the longest I believe O.O Heh, anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, next one will be up very soon.**

**R T R:**

**Bunny94 - Lol, I love cold weather O.O Texas heat sucks xP Lol, well now you know… Heh, thanks for reading and reviewing!**

**Thanks to everyone that reads, and please review? x)**

**Sincerely,**

**Marinec**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: All original movie characters, lines, settings etc. Belong rightfully to their creators. I own nothing except Rachel Velsing.**

**Chapter 1 - Detonation**

**A R M A G E D D O N**

**Which is worse, surviving death, or surviving survival?**

It was the most insane idea she had ever come up with, but it was insane enough to work….or not. It didn't matter, she would die if she did nothing, and if she did do something she had a better chance of surviving.

Oscar had saved her life, through sacrificing his, she wasn't about to let his sacrifice go to waste. Rachel had remembered back to when Watts was lecturing Bear about his DAT's. The DAT's are thrusters that enable gravity around you, and since there is no gravity, things float once they start moving and they don't stop unless forced to.

Her idea was to jump forwards, turn her DAT's off, and then she would float for a while, she turns them back on and she drops back down. It was psychotic, but Rachel wasn't willing to just give up and sit around waiting for a bomb to devour her.

Rachel had first went to get the Armadillo only to find it gone. Someone had taken it, she was encouraged by the fact someone or someone's had survived. Rachel looked out into the endless sky, the Freedom shuttle would have to have landed somewhere in the middle give or take a few miles considered the speed they were traveling at. She remembered the general direction, so that gave her an advantage.

Now she only had to worry about the razor sharp rocks, and canyons. Rachel started forward, taking a deep breath, "This is crazy, this is crazy. God help me."

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

"Just wanted to make sure you know we are stuck on an asteroid. Do you know what you are doing there?"

AJ replied to Andropov, "No, no, you know what, I have no idea what I'm doing! I have no idea! This button, I have no idea what that does! Okay? All I know is that we just crashed back there, I lost three of my friends, We're 25 miles from Harry's shuttle, we don't know if he's alive, we don't if he can fly, all I know is there is a beep on this thing, and I'm trying to get us there!"

Andropov stared at him throughout his entire rant, Bear looking between them.

----

Harry spoke towards Chick, "Lets get it unpacked."

They stepped out of the lift, Chick looking around. Sharp spoke,

"What's up?"

Harry continued walking, "We're drilling through some kind of metal, I've never seen before. It's fried two of our drill bends and now we just blew our first transmission."

Sharp followed him, "So how deep are we?"

"We could use your help with the transmission Colonel."

"I have to assess with control due now, we are supposed to be at 200 feet, so how deep are we?"

Harry responded a little coldly, "Not as deep as we'll be when you quit asking us all these questions and help us load this transmission on it."

Sharp asked with a more commanding tone, "What is our current depth?"

"Our current depth is not important Colonel!"

"I'll decide what is important, we've got 800 feet to drill, you have had two and a half hours! Where are we?"

Harry stood up and looked him in the eye, "We're 57 feet."

Sharp's face remained the same, though a look of dread flashed through his eyes. Harry continued,

"Now if your not too busy, maybe you can give us a hand with this transmission."

Sharp stared at him, and ignored him as he turned and walked quickly towards the radio transmissions. Harry called out,

"Colonel Sharp!" He continued walking.

Harry turned to Chick, "Get it strapped up, I'll be right back."

Harry shouted again, "COLONEL SHARP!"

Sharp sat down and grabbed the phone, "Houston, this is Freedom, do you copy?"

"Gruber's working on the north satellite link this moment. Transmission changed, puts drilling past four hours. Please advise, that is four hours past the zero barrier. Please advise."

Harry walked up and grabbed the drill card from Sharp's hand, "What the hell is this? Drill time? And where did this come from?"

"Who you talking to? Is that Truman? Let me have that phone, lemme the phone."

Harry grabbed it from Sharp and shouted across.

"Truman! Look this is what happens when you drill. We can not use your US Air Force Personnel Only Drill Time Card. Who wrote this thing by the way?!"

Watts leaned over and spoke, "We're losing comms again."

"Are you getting this?! Can you hear me?! What's wrong with this?"

Sharp stormed in there and grabbed the phone from Harry, Harry resisting. Sharp spoke,

"Comms down."

"What'd you mean comms down?"

"What do I mean? I mean we lost communications to mission control!"

"Lets go back to the cargo bay and get the transmission loaded!"

"Harry, guess what you had your shot, you didn't do it. You understand me?"

"You killed everybody." He continued.

Harry growled, "Why don't you stay here-"

They began cutting each other off, Harry finally shoved Sharp backwards into his seat, and shouted,

"Write a report why don't ya'? That'll-" Sharp cut him off again, shouting back. Harry in turn doing the same. Truman shook his head. Harry started to climb down into the cargo bay,

"My men and I will go and get this hole done!"

Sharp shouted, "You and your men are the biggest mistakes in the history of NASA!"

Harry stopped and stared at him. He knew it was probably true, and he knew their chances of getting 753 feet drilled in less than 5 hours was nearly impossible.

---

The phone rang, Kimsey's hand immediately picked it up.

"Yes? Kimsey here."

There was silence, Kimsey looked at Truman,

"Yes, Mr. President?"

Kimsey stood in silence listening to the other end of the phone,

"Yes, we saw that too Sir."

Kimsey suddenly looked slightly alarmed and tried to rationalize,

"-But maybe we should wait until the-"

He was cut off, and then he looked down setting the phone back on the hook. Truman looked up as Kimsey spoke,

"Dan. Get them out of there. Evac, right now."

Truman shook his head with a frown, "What's going on here?"

Kimsey replied, while looking him in the eyes, "I've been ordered to override the system."

At that moment the elevators opened and many officers came storming through. Truman looked up and shouted,

"W-what is this?!"

Kimsey replied, "Secondary Protocol."

"But they haven't drilled the damn hole yet!"

"The President's advisors feel the drilling isn't working. And we've lost radio contact, maybe for good, we've only got a few minutes left of guaranteed ability to remote detonate that nuke. If we don't do that now, we could lose control and we may never get it back."

Truman looked away and then shouted, "Well you better tell the President that he better fire his so called advisors, and if you detonate that nuke on the surface you waste a perfectly good bomb, and we have _one_ chance to save this planet!"

Truman replied into the phone, "Yes, Mr. President I understand that completely, but my point is very, very, simple. And I think you need to trust me on this, because I know something about it. I guarantee you if you do this, you kill us all."

Truman went silent as the President spoke adamantly. He sighed closing his eyes briefly,

"Yes, Sir."

He pulled the phone away and spoke, "General….He wants you."

Truman handed Kimsey the phone, and then looked away. Kimsey spoke,

"This is Kimsey."

"Yes, Sir….I understand."

Kimsey hung up the phone, looking downwards he spoke,

"The orders are to remote detonate in 30 seconds."

Grace came storming down rage and sorrow showing plainly, through her pale face. One of the advisors jumped in her way, she spoke viciously,

"You have not told them yet!"

They turned to look at her as she screamed, "THAT IS MY FATHER UP THERE!"

Truman turned on Kimsey angrily, "This is one order you shouldn't follow, and you fucking know it!"

Truman turned his back on Kimsey, and yelled at the Advisor, "Let her go, let her go!" He pulled Grace from the man and pulled her with him. He had an idea, but he needed to get her out of there first.

They took the keys and slid them into the slots, Kimsey looked down regretfully, "God be with them."

----

Chick was strapping the transmission down, when suddenly the bomb revved up and began ticking; the time counting downwards.

Chick spoke, "Harry…the clock on that nine foot nuclear weapon is ticking."

Harry stared at the bomb and spoke breathlessly, "Oh my god."

He ran forward and shouted at the top of his lungs, "SHARP! GET BACK HERE NOW!"

Sharp came flying down the ladder into the cargo bay. He shouted behind him,

"Watts! Get the shuttle ready for evac now!"

As Sharp ran towards him he spoke, "It just came on all by itself. W-what the hell's happening?"

Sharp replied, "Secondary protocol."

Harry looked at him, "What's that- What?!"

Chick looked at him and asked amazingly calmly as he helped them push the ticking nuclear weapon forward, "What does that mean?"

Harry cut in, "What the hell is secondary protocol?!"

Sharp speaking mindlessly as he worked quickly, "Detonating this thing-"

Harry didn't allow him to finish, "What do you mean detonating this thing?! We haven't even drilled the hole yet!"

Chick spoke in alarm, "Wo-ho-ho-whoa."

Sharp continued, "I need your help now!"

"Uh, no, no, no, how do ya; turn it off?" Chick asked.

"But Sharp, I got two men down on that rock!"

"I've got a man out there too! We've gotta evac now!"

Harry spoke into his comm, "Max, Rockhound! Get back to the shuttle now, double time!"

---

"They could be on there way here!"

Max shouted back in worry, "There not on there way here! They would have talked to us by now! We would have seen them!"

----

Harry shouted into the comm again, "MAX! ROCKHOUND!"

Chick spoke over him to Sharp, "Hey wait a minute! How do you turn this thing off?!"

Harry turned, "Max, Rockhound!"

----

Rock heard static over the line, "Harry, do you copy?"

Max shouted, "Something's wrong!"

Rock replied, "Yeah, it's all wrong, man. We shouldn't even be up here!"

He finished with a laugh as Max replied, "I know! Lets go back to the ship!

----

Harry turned as Sharp came running back, "I am not leaving without my men Sharp!"

Sharp began turning a dial extremely fast as he spoke, "We've got two and half minutes to drop it and get off this rock. If they're not back by the time we finish, we leave without them."

Chick spoke, "Ok…Lets simplify this, we-lets just turn the bomb off."

Harry growled, "If we don't put this bomb down in a hole 800 feet onto a fault line, all you're gonna have is a real expensive fireworks show."

Chick stared at Sharp as he continued strapping the bomb down, "This is turning into a surrealistic nightmare!"

----

Truman spoke quietly into a small comm connected to Waisler's head set.

"Waisler, are you listening, this is Truman. Ok listen to me carefully, I want you to kill it. Kill the uplink."

Waisler nodded his head, and sat down in his seat again, he looked around and began typing, a co-worker approached with the necessary codes to override the keys to the nuke.

----

"Give us the time Sharp! Shut this bomb down now!"

Sharp continued tightening the bomb, "Not my call."

Harry and Chick spoke in unison, "Then who's call is it?"

Sharp replied, "We were ordered to detonate it by the President."

Chick spoke in alarm, "Shut this bomb down now!"

Harry shouted, "THE PRESIDENT'S NOT HERE! WE NEED MORE TIME, I'M TELLING YOU SHUT THIS BOMB DOWN NOW!"

Sharp looked up, "And I'm telling you it's not my call!"

Harry turned and spoke, "Well guess what I just made the call for you." He picked up large red, round gripped, plyers. He swung them around to hit the nuke, Sharp whipped out .45 caliber pistol, Harry stopped instantly.

Sharp whispered, "Don't."

"You could set it off."

Chick stared at him, "Oh man, what are you doing with a gun in space?"

Gruber walked in staring at the scene in utter bewilderment. Sharp spoke,

"This things gonna blow we gotta get it off the ship."

Chick spoke quietly, "Easy."

Sharp looked at Gruber, "Stand down Sergeant."

Harry whispered, "Shut this bomb down, and let us finish this job the right way."

Sharp replied, "I'm under orders to protect a surface detonation."

Harry stared at him and then spoke, "I'm gonna give you three seconds to shut this bomb, down, and then I'm gonna make you shoot me."

Suddenly the bomb turned off, Chick looked down at it with a frown, "What happened?"

Harry continued staring at Sharp. He waited until his concentration was lost, Sharp looked down at the bomb, Harry swung the plyers hitting Sharp in the hand. He yelled in pain, when Chick turned on Gruber, his elbow whacking him across the face. A dull groan was released from him as Chick advanced.

Harry clamped the plyers around Sharp's neck, he fought against it, trying to get air and release. Harry growled through gritted teeth,

"You brought me all the way out here, just to blow me and my friends up? Is that it?!"

Sharp struggled to speak, Harry shouted, "Shut up! Shut up Colonel!"

Gruber stood up slowly, staring at Sharp who's face was turning red from lack of oxygen and struggling. Chick picked up the gun, Gruber eyeing him cautiously; backed down immediately.

"No talking now!"

Sharp gasped as he struggled to breathe, "It could start again, it might've been control."

The lift doors opened, Max and Rockhound stared at the scene. Harry spoke quietly,

"That's why you are going to dismantle this bomb."

Rockhound spoke, "All right, what did we miss?"

The bomb started up again, Chick spoke, "Oh geeze, here we go again."

Harry spoke quietly to Sharp. "What are you doing up here, why did you even bother to make the trip?"

Sharp responded with much struggle, "To do the right thing, to see that it's done."

Harry stared at him and knew he was telling the truth, he pulled the plyers from his neck. Sharp collapsing in relief, he breathed heavily, gaspingly.

Harry knelt down, "For god's sakes think about what you're doin'. Why are you listening to someone that's a hundred thousand miles away? We're here. No body down there can help us. So if we don't get this job done, then everybody's gone."

Chick interjected, "One minute."

Harry's eyes filled with tears in complete frustration. He continued firmly, "I have been drilling holes in the earth for thirty years. And I have never, _never_ missed a depth that I have aimed for. And by God, I am not gonna miss this one. I will make 800 feet."

"42 seconds."

"But I can't do it alone, Colonel. I need your help."

Sharp's face clenched in pain, as tears filled his eyes, his lips trembled as he looked back at the bomb. He spoke in struggled, rasped voice,

"You swear on your daughter's life, on my family's, that you can hit that mark?"

Harry stared at him, and then spoke quietly and beyond sincere-ness, "I will make 800 feet. I swear to God I will."

Sharp replied breathlessly, "Then lets turn this bomb off."

Harry lent him a hand, pulling him to his feet. The time clock ticked 30 seconds as Gruber and Sharp un-drilled it. Gruber flipped it over, Sharp spoke,

"Steady, steady. Take the back out."

"Pull the wire."

"Which one?" Gruber asked quickly.

"Uh-uh, all of them!"

Max cringed in fear as he stared at the ticking bomb, Rockhound breathed out, "Do a good job, do a good job."

They began cutting wires, Sharp spoke, "Negative B."

The clock ticked ten seconds, Rockhound muttered 'Do a good job' over and over, he closed his eyes in fear. Chick was backing away, cringing, as if waiting for a blast. Gruber than asked,

"Red or blue?"

They stopped. Sharp stared at the wires and went for the red one as it ticked 3 seconds, Max whimpered and closed his eyes. In a split second, Sharp changed and cut blue. The bomb stopped and powered down. Rockhound spoke nearly involuntarily,

"Good job!"

Harry let out the breath he had been holding for 30 seconds, Sharp backed away trying to calm his nerves. Max opened his eyes and muttered under his breath as he turned,

"Ah, God, it sucks up here."

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

"I've got some magic happening, we're bouncing off Russian and French satellites. I may have a signal."

Suddenly, Harry's very irritated an annoyed voice spoke,

"Houston. Houston do you copy?" Truman looked up, unaware of the radio signal.

Harry continued, "Houston, do you have a problem?"

Everyone in mission control stopped and listened with anticipation.

"You see I promised my little girl, that I'd be coming home. Now I don't know _what_ you people are doing down there, but we've got a hole to dig up here."

Everyone exploded in cheers, Grace laughed tearfully. Truman grinning from ear to ear, spoke,

"Come on, lets go, go, go, we've got work to do!"

----

Rockhound spoke, "Ok guys, all go no quit! How ya' doin' down there, good?"

Chick leaned out from behind the Armadillo's transmission and spoke, "Ok, got the tranny in, we're back in business!"

Rockhound turned slowly looking at the earth, "Hey, you guys should take a break and come up and see this. Wow. Got a great view of the Earth from here. Too bad we'll never set foot on her again."

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

The Armadillo rolled along slowly, Andropov walking out in front watching the ground closely. Bear was driving the vehicle, when AJ shouted,

"Lev! Do you see anything?"

"No."

"Well keep going, I'm not giving up!"

AJ looked around carefully, "Hold up here, Bear."

Andropov spoke, "Oh boy."

AJ growled, "This is great. We just happen to run into the Grand Canyon on the asteroid."

Andropov looked around and replied, "I told you, you took wrong way, wrong road."

AJ looked at him as if he was crazy, "What- What road? Do you see any roads around here?"

Andropov fired back, "You know what, I do not have much pleasure being near God's ear, but you think this is looking good or what?"

"Lev, why don't you do humanity a favor, and just _shut_ the hell up!" He threw a rock in the air in frustration, it spun and continued to float. AJ frowned, suddenly an idea forming in his head. He suddenly spoke,

"Have you ever heard of Evel Knievel?"

Andropov, being completely clueless replied, "No, I never saw Star Wars."

----

Rachel collapsed in complete weariness. Her breath was ragged, she was aching, she felt done. She had figured she was approximately 26 miles from Harry when she started, and now she was pretty sure she had 'bounded' 20 miles all in all, jumping 200 meters to 400 at a time. Each time taking at minimum two minutes and thirty seconds.

While she had 'floated' most of the way, she was worn out from fighting the stiff ass suit, calculating, time, distance, and trying to stay straight so she could mark her way correctly and not get totally off track.

In the beginning, what she hadn't anticipated was, you spin when you float in space. Yeah, not fun. Suddenly she heard static across her comm, she looked up. Her mind immediately whirled, she had to be close or else it wouldn't work. She heard the sound of a drill, she had gone a lot further than she had originally thought.

As if empowered she scrambled to her feet, her mind calculating the power of the comm and the sound of the noise. She was at most 4 miles off of the shuttle, according to the distance of the comm. The roaring of the drill was too powerful for her to be more than five miles away, she moved forward quickly. Not allowing no amount of weariness to stop her.

----

"All right your doing a good job." Rockhound spoke as he walked towards the nuke.

Harry spoke,

"Give me a depth reading Max!"

"We're heading 50 feet, Harry!" Max replied quickly.

Harry and Sharp headed towards the Nuke, to see Rockhound on top of it,

"Yee-haw! Ride em' cowboy! Yippe - I - Oh, Kai - ay!"

Harry looked at Sharp then back at Rockhound as if he had completely lost his mind. Sharp stopped and spoke firmly.

"Get off. The Nuclear. Warhead."

Rockhound grinned, "I was doing that guy from that movie, you know, Slim Pickens, where he rides it all the way in, the nuclear warhead."

Sharp ignored his statement, "Now."

Rockhound sobered, "Oh, you didn't see that one, huh?"

Sharp stared at him. His gaze unwavering, Harry spoke up,

"We've got 700 feet of hole to dig Rockhound."

Rockhound nodded his head, "All right, Just wanted to feel the power between my legs, brother."

Rockhound got off, Sharp still staring at him.

"Hey Sharp! No nukes! No nukes! No nukes!" He pumped his arms downwards in a protesting fashion.

Sharp sighed and looked at Harry, his face covered with the utmost annoyance. Harry smiled and spoke,

"You got any more bullets in that gun, Sharp?"

**-----**

"What did Watts tell ya' Bear? If she kicked you in the balls, you'd keep floating?"

Bear breathed, "Yeah…"

AJ put the Armadillo in reverse, he spoke,

"We turn the thrusters off, we jump, we float right over this thing!"

He stopped the vehicle, and spoke, "Go over it again Lev."

Andropov spoke, "So we check thrusters off exactly when we jump and then I'm gonna put them on and were gonna go down nice and slow."

Bear spoke deeply, "That's it, That's it baby, That's it."

AJ looked at Andropov, "Is this gonna work?"

Andropov looked at him then Bear, and then back, "I don't know."

AJ spoke, "Lev! You know what, just…lie to me!"

"Let's say fifty- No. More like um, like 17, 13, 18, 20- You know what if it works the two of you gonna be heroes. Just like me."

AJ replied, "Screw it, we're jumping over this canyon." The Armadillo began to roll forward and gain speed, Bear shouted, "Just for the record, this is a very bad idea!"

As they got closer and closer to the edge, AJ spoke,

"Not yet Lev, not yet…"

Andropov counted slowly, and as they hit the edge, he shouted, "OFF!"

They hit the air, the Armadillo wavering, but never the less began floating across the canyon. They cheered,

"YES! IT'S WORKING! IT'S WORKING!"

AJ smiled from ear to ear, looking around. Andropov shouted,

"I'm a genius!"

AJ spoke, "Whoa, whoa, whoa."

Andropov muttered, "Wait a minute."

Before them stood a tall, razor sharp rock, AJ began frantically pulling on the controls, only to find, the tires don't work without track.

"We've got something wrong!"

Andropov shouted, "Go left! Go left!"

AJ shouted, "I can't do it!"

They began yelling in fear and staring at the rock while frantically turning the wheel. The Armadillo hit the rock incredibly hard, it shifted upwards from the impact.

Andropov spoke, "Ok, ok, we're floating into outerspace."

AJ spoke, "Uh…this could be a little bit of a problem."

Andropov spoke, "Thrusters on!"

"Ok turn them on!"

They burst to life and then suddenly shut off. AJ frowned, "What's wrong?"

Andropov spoke while pushing the buttons forcefully, "The thrusters aren't working!" He punched the wall while yelling,

"I HATE THIS MACHINE!"

AJ shouted, "I thought you had this all planned!"

"BE QUIET, I'm stepping outside." Andropov said standing up and heading towards the main exit. He stopped near Bear as AJ frowned, "You're-you're going outside?"

Andropov replied, "I am the only certified astronaut. And I'm saving your American ass!"

Bear looked straight ahead with wide eyes. Not daring to say a word. Bear spoke as he went into the air sealed shaft.

"Yeah we should listen to him, _right_."

As Andropov climbed outside, AJ shouted,

"HURRY UP MAN, WE'RE ABOUT A MILE OFF THE ASTEROID!"

"JUST A SECOND THE FUEL LINES ARE ICED UP!"

He began stabbing the iced pipes trying to clear them and give the room to start up again..

"I think maybe working now?!"

AJ replied while stabbing his finger at the controls button, "No, Lev! IT'S NOT WORKING!"

Andropov spoke, "Sorry AJ! I was way off the odds!"

Bear spoke, "We're getting higher man!"

Andropov continued beating on the ice, suddenly he looked up and in panic yelled,

"LOOK OUT THE ROCKS! THE ROCKS!"

AJ's eyes widened, as he could do nothing. Andropov was hit severly hard, throwing him backwards, he grabbed on to the edge of the Armadillo as he swung from side to side, and was pelted with a series of debris. He fell over the side, AJ shouted,

"HOLD ON!"

Suddenly on his side was a large rock, quickly he jumped to the top of the Armadillo on the windshield, he shouted,

"PUSH THE THRUSTERS!"

AJ SHOUTED, "LEV LOOK OUT!"

They crashed into a large rock and began spinning violently. Andropov hanging on for dear life as he was tossed back and forth.

AJ spoke in fear, "We lost Lev!"

Andropov screamed, "AJ!" He grabbed on to a long rope and was flung out the back of the Armadillo, still managing to hold on.

"AJ THE THRUSTERS!"

They continued to spin, AJ yelling. He began pushing several buttons, the thrusters suddenly bursting to life. Propelling them in more spirals, and slamming the Armadillo into a rock wall. Bear's eyes were wide as he breathed quickly and shortly.

"LEV HOLD ON WERE COMIN' IN!"

The Armadillo began lowering, it stopped spinning as it's tires crashed into the rocks, shoving it forward and sliding it to a halt in a flat area.

Sweat streamed down Bear's face as he began speaking in a whisper, "Thank you Jesus, Thank you Lord, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you."

Andropov sat up, looking around in compete bewilderment of what he had just survived, and gone through. AJ pulled on his suit and opened the hatch, he yelled, "LEV!"

Andropov screamed, "NOW I'M REALLY A RUSSIAN HERO!!"

AJ shouted, "I told you!"

"Good work!"

AJ was grinning, he clapped his hands, "Come on Lev, get in here, we gotta go!"

Andropov pumped his arm in the air, "YEAHHH!"

----

"Rockhound keep an eye on that transmission." Harry said.

"Tranny looks good Harry."

"All right take it outta there, lock it down Chick."

While they were installing the new Drill razors, they had not see Rockhound pick up the turret. He spoke,

"Hey. How come we didn't get any training on this thing?"

As the red laser beemed out, he spoke in excitement, "Whoa, very cool."

"I can take out this asteroid, single handedly."

"Ok boys, give it a rest I'll take it from here."

Rockhound let fire rip through the air, "WHOA!" He shouted.

Chick looked up and jumped to the side to avoid the fire, "What the hell is that?!" The bullets began ripping through the air and the rock, narrowly missing the crew members.

Harry growled, "Rockhound!"

He teetered slightly from the kickback of the gun, but grinned as he spoke, "Whoa! This is so much fun it's freaky!"

He lifted the gun back up and began firing again. Harry ran towards him, "ROCKHOUND!"

Sharp ran forward, having to leave his cover behind a rock, Rockhound had torn through. Gruber pulled him in behind the Armadillo.

Harry dropped to the ground, dodging the rain of fire. Rockhound spoke easily, "Sorry Harry." But continued fire.

Rockhound shouted, "Outta my way boy!" Harry had to army crawl all the way up to the rock hill, Rockhound stood on. Harry shouted,

"ROCKHOUND!"

"EAT YOUR LIQUOR ASTEROID!"

Harry suddenly tackled Rockhound, they flew downwards quickly, Rock was slammed terribly hard. They all cautiously appeared from their cover, Sharp muttered,

"This is insane."

Harry yelling at Rockhound, "Have you lost your mind?!"

Sharp called out, "He's got space dementia."

He continued, "Harry you wanna watch your men."

Suddenly flames began bursting from the pipe drill, it began to shake. Harry spoke calmly but urgently,

"Max….downshift slowly, and put it in reverse. We gotta get that pipe outta there."

Max frowned and looked, his eyes widened to the size of saucers as he saw the problem. The ground began to shake violently, Max shouted,

"WHAT'S HAPPENING?!"

Sharp shouted, "The grounds cracking!"

"EARTHQUAKE!"

As they began to scatter from the cracks that began opening. Harry's leg fell into one he shouted,

"MAX! SHUT IT OFF! SHUT IT OFF!"

Max shouted, "WE'RE GONNA HAVE A BLOW OUT!"

Harry shouted, "WE HIT A GAS POCKET!"

"MAX GET YOUR HELMET ON! IT'S GONNA BLOW!"

Max shouted, "OH JESUS I'M COOKING!" As the flames began licking the Armadillo. Sharp shouted,

"GET OUT!"

"MAX GET OUTTA THERE!" Harry shouted, his face crushed in complete fear, as the Armadillo began to shake violently.

Max screamed, "HARRY!"

Harry was thrown backwards by a burst of flames. Max went to save something, but an explosion caught him off, caught him off completely.

"NOOO!" Harry screamed.

Rockhound who was still a little -out there- spoke softly, "Bye Max."

"NOOOO!" Screamed Harry again in pain of losing another friend. Rockhound spoke quietly,

"Take care buddy."

Harry crawled to his feet, as Chick took a step forward staring at the Armadillo that was floating away. They had just lost another friend, and they had no Armadillo. Things were not going good, at all.

Harry collapsed to his knees by the hole, his hand scooping up ash, as he let dribble out of his hand. He spoke sorrowfully,

"Get a hold of Truman, prepare the world for bad news."

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

Rockhound spoke,

"Guess what guys, it's time to embrace the horror! Look, we've got front row tickets to the end of the earth!"

Harry's eyes looked up slowly, as heard crackling across his comm. A frown crossed his face as he slowly stood, scanning the area. A light flashed at the top of a cliff. Harry's eyes rested there for a moment, and suddenly an Armadillo began crawling along. He pumped his arm in the air,

"YEAHH!"

Bear shouted, "WHAT'S UP BABY!"

AJ continuing, "HARRY!"

Sharp slowly stood and stared at the Armadillo in complete disbelief of their survival. Chick looked up, his face losing the complete look of defeat. A smile slowly spread.

"YEAH!" Harry shouted again.

Bear calling, "HARRY! WHAT'S UP BA-BY!"

"Sharp! Get that bomb outta here! We got a hole to make!"

---

Rachel jumped slightly as screaming erupted over her comm. She stumbled forward, her eyes widening. Others had survived, she heard Bear's voice, and AJ's. She ran -if you could call it that- forward, seeing the edge. Rachel realized she had made it, they had began digging the hole in a valley.

As she reached the edge, she saw the Armadillo crawling slowly towards the center, though she didn't see the other. Only blackened ash was around the hole. Bear shouted.

"YEAH! HARRY, WHAT'S UP BABY!"

She grinned and began a very quick, but cautious trek downwards. AJ suddenly spoke,

"Hey Harry! Ya' miss me?"

"AJ, I got just five words for you: Damn glad to see you boy!"

AJ smiled, "That's six words."

"Chick walk em' down!"

"So where's this hole you need done?"

As Rachel became closer, she spoke,

"Hey, hey, don't start the party without me!"

They turned, AJ staring at her with disbelief. At the looks of complete shock she spoke,

"Yeah, you don't _wanna_ know how I get here."

Harry grinned, "Lets dig a hole!"

As they began lining the Armadillo up, Rachel joined up with Gruber for the munitions part of drilling. She spoke,

"So what needs to be done?"

"As of now? Rockhound needs to be tied down."

Rachel frowned, "What'd he do?"

"Lost his mind."

He handed her a roll of duck tape, she shrugged, "All right."

As Rachel entered the cargo bay, she saw Rockhound already duck taped down. He looked at her,

"RACHE! Your alive! I-I thought you died!"

"Yeah me too Rockhound."

"Can you get me out of this? I'm not crazy, I swear!"

"Who tied ya' down?"

"Watts did. You know for a woman with her looks, she is extremely strong."

Rachel laughed, "Good for her, she did my job."

Rachel entered the lift again, Rockhound shouted, "RACHE!"

Sharp had just came down the ladder, he stopped as soon as he saw her. Rachel smiled, Sharp stepped into the lift with her. As the doors shut, he spoke,

"You were with them in the Armadillo?"

"No, I came in a very _different_ way."

Sharp smiled as they hit the bottom, as they put their helmets on, he spoke,

"It's great to have you back, Velsing."

Rachel smiled at him. "It's great to be back, Colonel." She headed over to Gruber and set the duck tape down,

"Watts got sick of him and tied him down herself."

Gruber looked up, "Great. I've got everything under control here, you can go and give the crew an extra person to do monitoring."

Rachel nodded my head, as she walked over to the Armadillo. Chick spoke,

"Bring that heat down Bear!"

Harry looked at her, "Watch the tranny."

She nodded her head, and walked behind where the transmission was working, and stood watch. Nothing really to it, but it was crucial that it didn't blow or else it could and was a severe danger to everyone around it.

"Drop the drill!"

AJ shouted, "Alright comin' down!"

Harry spoke, "We've got 250 feet to go! Last transmission, last drill!"

"Punch it through! First gear, we got contact!"

"Bring it on down AJ!"

Bear growled as he carried many pipes towards them, "I've got some, lets go!"

---

Watts spoke, "Lev! The right engine hopped!"

Andropov came sprinting through the cargo bay, Rockhound had duck tape over his mouth as Watts had gotten tired of his shouting. Andropov stopped and went back he ripped the tape off his mouth, Rockhound growled and began to speak, though was cut off as Andropov put a hand over his mouth to listen to the instructions from Watts. He took off again, Rockhound shouting,

"I was just trying to have some fun before I died!"

----

"How deep are we?" Harry shouted.

AJ shouted, "770!"

Rachel shouted, "Harry the Tranny's starting to struggle!"

Flames burst from the drill, pushing Chick backwards.

"SHUT IT DOWN! BACK IT DOWN!" Harry shouted.

AJ continued, "I can pull it back now! We don't have the time!"

Chick shouted, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! It's gonna blow!"

Harry shouted, "THIS IS HOW WE LOST MAX!"

AJ looked up but continued going down with the drill, "I KNOW WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT! WE CAN NOT JUST SET DOWN THE BAR!"

"This is our last transmission AJ!" Harry shouted.

AJ shouted, "God damn it! If your ever gonna trust me, ever, once in your life, trust me now!"

Rachel knew this was it, it was all up to AJ's gut now. She took a deep breath, and continued watching the transmission carefully. It began heating up, and letting out a squealing noise, she cringed and shot a look at Harry.

Chick shouted, "HARRY IT'S GONNA BLOW!"

AJ interjecting, "I know what I'm doing! You just gotta trust me!"

Harry breathed deeply as he stared at AJ, Rachel knew they needed to keep going, they needed to get as deep as possible.

Harry spoke, "Make the call."

AJ stared and then spoke, "All right hold up, I'm pushing through!"

AJ shouted, "I'm pushing through!"

Rachel came around, and helped them control the drill, that now was bouncing violently. Harry shouted,

"What's your depth?"

"775...78!"

Bear pushed the pipe upwards, Rachel helping lower down, "Bring it up baby! Drive it home!"

Harry shouted, "COME ON DOWN AJ!"

"COME ON AJ! PUNCH IT!"

AJ shouted, "792! 795!"

Rachel shouted, "WE'RE ALMOST THERE! COME ON!"

"Lets go down AJ!" Bear shouted.

"796! 799! 800!"

Rachel pumped her arm in the air, "YES!"

Harry shouted, "YEAH!"

AJ shouted, "WE DID IT!"

Bear and Chick shouting in unison, "YOU DID IT AJ!"

Rachel shouted, "Lets get that nuke down here, and blow this _bitch_ up!"

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

**T minus 38 minutes - Day 1**

"I'm gonna need two more minutes! I've got a bench pipe in that hole, we gotta cut it out before we send the bomb down!"

Sharp gave him a look, saying nothing and returning to rewiring the bomb. Rachel tossed another pipe into the growing pile.

"She good to go?"

"Yeah I'm all set!"

AJ was lowered down in the hole and began quickly cutting the pipe. Sharp shouted,

"Harry you gotta give me that hole, the bomb's almost ready!"

Harry replied, "Just a second!"

Rachel looked up as rock began floating past, she frowned.

"Uh…"

She jumped as one that was on _fire_ flew past her, barely missing her. "WHOA!"

Chick spoke, "Well this something new."

Chunks of rock kept coming, and the asteroid began quaking. Rachel growled,

"Holy _shit_! Do the surprises _ever_ stop?!"

They all looked as a particularly large hunk, crashed into another stationary rock. Rachel covered her face as small chunks began raining down upon them.

Harry spoke, "I don't think this thing likes us!"

Chick who was still watching carefully, replied, "That's because it knows we're gonna kill it."

"WHOA!" Harry shouted as a rock flew past Gruber, he began running towards them, trying to get out of the corner he was caught, as did Andropov.

AJ shouted, "What's going on up there?!"

Rachel shouted, "GET HIM OUT OF THERE!"

All hell began to break loose as the rocks kept coming and crashing into the ground below, Rachel dove out of the as way one came crashing down. Harry and Chick were pulling AJ out, when suddenly there was an explosion in the hole, rock came flying out, and AJ went with it.

Chick reacting quickly grabbed the rope attached to AJ before he floated into outer space. AJ was brought down by a rock, which barely missed him. Gruber shouted,

"SHARP WATCH OUT!"

Rachel shot up as a rock came towards Gruber, "GRUBER!" He froze as the rock came towards him. She was too late as the rock hit him and her. She was flung terribly hard against a rock,. She groaned in pain as she fell to the ground.

Rachel struggled to move, a piercing pain erupted in her side causing her to yelp. Rocks and flames shot down all around her, she looked around, and only twenty feet away, lied Gruber. Who no longer moved.

She cried out as a large rock fell, and she had no where to go, she covered the glass of her helmet defensively as it crashed down upon her. As the rock's rain of hell became more brutal, it all resolved so quickly to complete calmness. Rachel used every bit of strength she possessed and shoved the rock off of her, again whimpering at the terrible pain in her side. She heard Chick shout to Harry across the comm,

"Do you believe that just happened?!"

Harry spoke, "Sharp you all right?"

"I'm ok."

"Bear?"

"Yeah, I'm here Harry."

"AJ?"

"Yeah, I'm ok." AJ stared down at Gruber, he spoke quietly, "We lost Gruber. Gruber's dead."

Sharp looked around, "Rachel?"

She slowly stood to her feet, and staggered lightly to the side,

"I-I'm alive."

Harry spoke, "Are you alright?"

Rachel straightened, she smiled falsely, "Yeah. Great."

"Lets get the bomb ready and go home."

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

**T Minus 20 minutes - Day 1**

"Oh my god." Sharp said as he lowered the nuke. The bomb beeped several times every few seconds, Harry spoke,

"Is there a problem Colonel?"

"The timer the remote, the whole thing's dead!"

Rachel looked over his shoulder, frowning. AJ spoke in dread,

"What- The bomb is dead?"

"Nah, the triggers dead…It must have gotten damaged during the rock storm." Sharp said as he looked up.

Rachel realizing what this meant spoke, "Is there someway we can fix it? I have the training for it."

"No, the wires, the controls, everything is completely destroyed."

Harry stared at Sharp, "How do we detonate it?"

Sharp looked him in the eyes, having to say nothing. Harry already knew.

Rachel sighed, "Lets get this bomb lowered in the hole first."

Slowly, but surely the bomb was tipped down the hole, taking not long. Rachel thought in dread, knowing she should stay behind and detonate the bomb, but knew Harry would get in the way. But still, she would go it with everything she had, she needed to stay behind, she would cause the least amount of emotional damage, it only made sense.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

They sat around in the cargo bay, Sharp spoke,

"It takes two people to fly this thing, either we all stay and die, or you guys draw straws."

Rockhound who was staring at the ceiling spoke, "I say we all stay and die."

Everyone looked at him, he sighed, "But that's me."

"I'll draw. Let's draw." AJ said.

"Nobody's gonna draw straws. I'll stay and take care of it."

"Well, I can't live with that sort of thing." Chick spoke up.

"Nobody asked you if you could live with it, all right?" Harry fired back.

"Harry shut up." Rachel spoke. "You promised Grace, you would return. I promised no one. I'll stay."

Andropov stood up and shouted, "Bullshit! No way I will let you volunteer for this, so I can go back to my home country like the man who did not volunteer! No way!"

Bear held up his hands, "Hey man, let's draw, and let's see who's gonna stay up here and dance."

Rachel shook her head, "No, no one is drawing straws to see who stays her to die. I volunteered, my death means less."

The look Harry gave her, made her blood run cold. Everybody had gone silent, when Rockhound finally spoke, "Hey guys? I-I know you guys think I'm crazy right now but, I would really like this responsibility."

Rachel shot Harry a suspicious look as he suddenly agreed to drawing straws. "All right. All right."

"I can do it!" Rockhound said shrilly.

"Let's just draw straws and get it over with. Come on."

Chick shook his head, "I ain't drawin' against you, Harry."

Rachel stood up, "Likewise Harry."

"Well, I'm gonna draw against you guys, so you better just go ahead and do it."

Sharp took a step forward and held up seven wires.

"Just gimme this thing." Chick said grabbing it from Sharp.

Rachel growled and pulled it from his hand. His eyes connected with hers, there was a certain dread about them, as if he didn't want her to stay. Her eyes flickered curiously, though she backed up and looked at her straw. It was short, and short was definitely bad.

Andropov looked at his wire, and frowned, "Is this good, or bad?" His wire was extremely long, Rachel smiled bitterly, "Long is good."

AJ shook his head, he had drawn the shortest wire. "Oh man. Well, we all gotta die right? I'm the guy who gets to do it saving the world."

AJ continued, "So, uh, lets go, we got ten minutes right?"

Sharp walked up to him, "You plug this into the port, lift, press, hold. That's it."

AJ echoed, "Lift, press, hold. Shouldn't be too tough. Even I can't screw this up." He smiled bitterly. Rachel shook her head,

"AJ, you just saved the entire world by continuing on gut instinct to drill that hole, when none of us would have done so."

Harry spoke quietly, "I'll take him down."

Rachel's head shot his way, his eyes connecting with hers. There was something there, she knew he was holding. He wasn't going to let AJ sacrifice himself. He just wouldn't. Rachel wanted to say something, but knowing Harry, he _needed_ to stay behind, it was the only way he would ever be satisfied.

He made it his duty. Rachel was always loyal to Harry, she looked away as she knew this was it. Her eyes reconnected, though filled with tears this time. He nodded his head, Rachel returning it, to the bravest man she had ever met.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

AJ and Harry stepped into the lift, the doors shut. Bear stared at AJ tearfully, Chick waved, Andropov couldn't stand the sight of his new American friend leaving to sacrifice himself; turned away.

Harry looked at AJ slowly, what he was going to do, already there, and about to be accomplished. As the lift door opened, AJ spoke,

"Do me a favor will ya'? Just tell Grace that, uh, that I'll always be with her. Okay? Can you do that?" His voice began cracking, his lips trembled. He knew he would never see her again, and that thought terrified him.

AJ stepped off the lift, looking around deciding where he should head first.

"Yeah. Okay kid." Harry responded softly.

Suddenly Harry reached down, grabbing hold of AJ's oxygen tube, and pulled it loose. AJ whipped around, his gloved hand going to the globe of the helmet, he tried to breathe, but all the air in his suit was gone.

Harry ripped his special missions' patch from his own suit, sticking it in AJ's pocket he spoke quickly.

"Give this to Truman. Make sure Truman gets that!"

He shoved AJ forcefully backwards into the lift, "Get in there!" Harry closed the door from the outside, as AJ yanked his helmet off. Harry spoke calmly,

"It's my turn now."

AJ screamed, tears already welling up in his eyes, "HARRY! HARRY! You can't do this to me! It's my job!!"

Harry's eyes glistened with tears as he walked around the lift, he spoke sincerely,

"You go take care of my little girl now. That's your job."

He paused, staring at AJ. AJ's lips trembled, tears rolled down his face as Harry spoke again,

"Always thought of you as a son. Always."

AJ shook his head, as Harry continued,

"But, I'd be damn proud to have you marry Grace."

AJ managed to speak, his voice barely making it out in more than a whisper, "Harry."

Harry breathed as he hit the lift button, "You take care of yourself."

As it began rising, AJ fell to his knees, screaming, tears flowing,

"HARRY!, NO!"

Harry bit back the tears, that threatened to pour from his own eyes. "I love you, boy."

"Harry, I love you! Don't Harry! Wait a minute! Harry, no!!" AJ fell to the bottom of the lift, refusing to let go, not wanting to leave Harry. Harry barely managed to whisper as the knot grew in his throat,

"Bye, son."

As the lift reached the top, the doors opened. They stared at him. One glance was all it took, and it all became too much. Rachel turned away as tears began rolling down her face freely. Her body shuddered as she had just lost the man, the one man in this world she had truly thought of as a father. The bravest man the world had ever seen.

Rockhound spoke, "What happened?"

Chick growled, "That crazy stubborn son of bitch." He grabbed AJ's hand and hauled him to his feet. The tears still were streaming down AJ's face. Harry's voice suddenly echoed over Sharp's comm,

"Well…This was a real good idea. All right, lets go Sharp, lets get the team out of here."

----

"INITIATE LOCKDOWN! PREPARE FOR EVAC!"

Bear was quickly strapping Andropov in, Chick helping AJ. As Bear sat down, Rachel began strapping him in, as she yanked hard on the strap and she was suddenly struck with a severe pain in her upper right side. Bear looked at her curiously as she nearly yelped,

"You all right?"

Rachel couldn't smile, she nodded her head, lying through her tear stained face, "Yeah Bear, I'm fine.

----

"Houston do you copy? This is Harry Stamper."

Quincy led Grace towards the screen area, she sat down as Sharp's voice echoed over the comm,

"Houston we are at T Minus 3 minutes."

She looked at the screen to see Harry, "Daddy?"

"Hi Gracie." Harry said with a tearful smile.

"Grace, I know I promised you I was coming home." Harry said with a deep sigh. Grace's mouth opened, her face paling, she struggled to speak,

"I-I don't under-understand."

Harry looked her in the eyes, and sighed sorrowfully, "Looks like I'm gonna have to break that promise."

Grace's eyes began to water, as she looked off and took a breath, "I am…I lied to you too….When I told you, I didn't want to be like you." She smiled through her tears,

"Because I am like you. And everything good I have inside of me, I have from you."

Tears formed at the edges of Harry's eyes, it took every ounce of control he had to not burst out crying.

"I love you so much Daddy…And I am so proud of you." Grace spoke, her voice beginning to crack. "I'm so scared….so scared."

"I know baby, but there won't be anything to be scared of soon. Gracie, I want you to know that AJ saved us. He did." Tears began rolling down AJ's cheeks again as he listened to Harry talk.

Rachel bit down on her hand, to prevent from sobbing, tears relentlessly poured from her eyes.

"And I want you to tell Chick, that I couldn't have done it without him." Chick smiled through his tears as his body convulsed slightly in restraint. Before Harry was done, he smiled tearfully, "Oh, I want you to tell Rachel, that I approve."

Rachel broke down, tears falling freely. She made no noise, she did not shudder, but she did feel the terrible ache of her heart, knowing they were all going to lose Harry.

"I went to see your granddad, right before I came up here Grace. He told me that God gives us children so that we can have roses in December….but he gave me a garden full."

Grace smiled through the tears welling up in her eyes, Harry smiling through tears as well…. "A whole garden full, Grace, he really did." Tears slowly began to fall from her eyes, as she smiled at the father, she would never see again in a few minutes.

"I wish I could be there to walk you down the aisle. But I'll drop in on ya' from time to time, okay honey?" Tears rolled down his face, "I love you Grace."

Grace sobbed slightly, and spoke hoarsely, "I love you too."

"I've gotta go now, honey." Grace cried, "Daddy no…" The screen became fuzzy as Harry turned the video off.

"No, no, no dad no." Grace murmured to herself, as her hand went to the screen, her head bent down as she began to sob. She was never going to see her father again…and the pain in knowing that was incomprehensible. She spoke quietly,

"I love you daddy. I love you."

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

"OMS pre start. 02 vents locked, pressure loaded." Watts spoke as the engine roared to life of the shuttle.

"What the hell is going on up there, why haven't you guys left yet?" Harry said across the comm.

Sharp replied, "We're going Harry. Houston! We got OMS pods for pre start."

The engine started, as the thrusters began roaring to life, suddenly they shut off instantly. A look of sheer shock crossed Sharp's features,

"What's the problem?"

"I don't know." Watts replied immediately.

Andropov shouted, "What's wrong?!"

Sharp spoke firmly, "Fix it _now_!"

The thrusters started again, only to die once more. Watts jumped on her feet, taking off to the engines compartment.

"We've got no time, no time!" Sharp called out after her.

Andropov rolled his eyes, and yanked his seat belts off, standing up grudgingly and following Watts. They both quickly dropped down into the engine shaft, Rockhound spoke in irritation,

"Oh come on We're staying, we're going, we're staying, we're going, make up your mind!"

Harry spoke across the comm, "Damn it Sharp get out of here! You've got less than three minutes!"

Watts tore into the small cubicle type room, she began reading many dials of the components.

Sharp began jittering in his seat, "Oh come on Watts, Come on, come on!"

Rockhound who was still suffering from space dementia, spoke out, "Blow the bomb Harry! We're with ya'!"

Rachel looked around, "Do I need to go down there? I have a bit of experience with malfunctioning engines."

Sharp looked at her, "Yeah, you might as well, you might be able to do something."

Rachel nodded her head, and quickly unstrapped herself, she darted down in the lower compartments. Andropov spoke,

"It's stuck yes?"

Watts shouted, "Back off! You don't know the components!"

Andropov replied, "Components. American components, Russian Components, ALL MADE IN TAIWAN!"

Rachel would have laughed if they were not in the dire need to escape at the moment. Sharp shouted,

"Houston! We have no fire!"

Rockhound piping up, "What does that mean?"

Sharp looked at him once as he pushed the thrusters button repeatedly, "It's mean we've got a busted ship."

Rockhound gave him a wide eyed look and spoke seriously, "A busted ship? And I'm strapped in here? I had a great spot picked out there!"

Chick growled, "Rockhound if you don't shut up, so help me God I am going to send Rachel after you."

The ground of the asteroid began to split and shake once more as Harry shouted across the comm, "You've got less than a minute, don't think I won't blow this thing!"

Harry was suddenly slammed with a rock, he slid down to the ground and managed to groan,

"Sharp get outta here, it's getting bad down here."

Rachel entered the components room, Andropov spoke,

"I, uh, know how to fix it, please move. I-I uh, have to take you away if you don't move." Rachel leaned away, hinting the warning tone in Andropov's unusually calm voice.

Harry shouted, "DAMN IT SHARP GET OFF THIS ROCK!"

The ground began to split apart beneath the shuttle. Harry pulled himself to his feet, watching the ground carefully, so as to not fall.

Rachel looked at the machine, and knew there was nothing wrong with it. It was a simple malfunction of technology, and honestly she had no idea how to fix it. Andropov spoke again warningly, his tone more annoyed this time,

"I'm telling you, PLEASE MOVE!" He grabbed a hold of Watts and threw her against the wall, she stared at him in bewilderment. Rachel ducked as he grabbed the large tool and began yelling,

"This is how we fix problems in Russian SPACE STATION!" He began beating on the components box viscously and continued,

"BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO STAY HERE ANYMORE-I-" Suddenly the thrusters exploded to life, Rachel stared and then spoke,

"…Well that is one way to fix an unbroken shuttle."

Andropov shouted, "Yes! Finally! We can go home!"

Rachel muttered as she climbed up the ladder, lightning quick, "Amen to that Lev." That sharp pain in her side suddenly struck again, though far worse this time. She crumpled into her seat, barely being able to strap herself in. She refrained from crying out in pain, Rachel wasn't sure what was wrong, but she definitely needed medical attention.

Obviously, she was far more injured than she had originally thought.

Harry muttered across the comm towards the asteroid, "Spray all you want, you son of bitch."

Watts leapt into her seat, Sharp spoke quickly,

"Initiate thrusters on my mark, 2, 1 go!"

The thrusters exploded to life once more. They were thrown back against their seats, Rachel nearly cried out in pain as the sharp stitch in her side returned. She bit her lip determinedly, to not utter a sound, to not let weakness show.

They launched off the asteroid, though were not clear, Rachel closed her eyes as they weaved in between many tall standing rocks and continued to rise. They were going to make it, they were going to make it.

Her eyes opened as Sharp looked back and spoke through the comm,

"Thank you Harry."

Explosions began rocketing out of the asteroid, Harry looked off to the side, his eyes widening at the sight. He turned trying to escape, only to be caught on top of one, he was thrown mercilessly in the air.

Sharp licked his lips nervously,

"Too much time has gone by."

Sharp spoke, "We're going back and doing it ourselves." His hand reached for the reverse controls.

Chick cut him off, "Just don't, wait one minute."

Harry fought against the hole, against the terrible winds raging across the asteroid. He. Would. Not. Fail. He didn't know how to, and wouldn't accept defeat. Harry forced himself forward, climbing slowly out of the hole he had been thrown into, not stopping, never stopping.

Sharp's hand fell on the reverse controls this time, Chick shouted,

"Colonel! I'm asking you, just one more minute!"

Harry's hand touched the surface, digging desperately, pulling himself forward towards the detonator. He leapt forward, his hand falling upon it.

AJ spoke quietly and assuredly, "Harry will do it, I know it. He doesn't know how to fail."

Harry looked upwards, his eyes falling upon the earth. He flipped the top, and just before he pushed, he spoke,

"We win Gracie."

Just as he closed his eyes, Freddy, Oscar, and Max all appeared before him. Smiles everlasting, his finger fell upon the button, and held. The terrible screech of the final beep, and then the explosion rung out.

_And there was Grace._

The nuclear bomb ran deep, tearing the rock apart, shredding it into two halves just as it passed the zero barrier.

They cringed at the bright light, turning their heads or covering their faces. As the two halves were propelled past the earth, Sharp spoke softly,

"Houston, we're coming in."

"We copy that, Freedom."

Bear's deep voice spoke up, "Harry…You the man." They all nodded their heads, and sat in silence.

"Kennedy, we see you…and you never looked so good." Sharp spoke..

Chick spoke up, "I never told anybody this before, but I hate flyin'. So it would be an awful shame to die now."

Rockhound grunted, "That's easy for you to say. I owe 100 grand to a fat-ass loan shark which I spent on a stripper named Molly Mounds."

Chick agreed, "Boy, that's bad."

Rachel suddenly felt very sick, she felt a warm liquid forming at the edge of her lips. Her gloved hand wiped it away, only to reveal smeared blood across her hand. Dread struck her, as she know knew what happened, her breath began to become ragged and weak.

She forced herself to be all right. Rachel wouldn't allow herself to collapse now…The shuttle began to shake as the passed through back in the Earth's atmosphere. Rachel bit down on her hand, only to find blood covering it from her mouth.

She needed a medical attention and quickly. As the wheels hit the runway, several Military hummer's headed their way. A crowd had gathered to greet them. Sharp stood up,

"Welcome home Astronauts."

Rachel stood slowly, ignoring the pain in her side. As the landing slide was let loose, Rockhound spoke,

"If you guys remember, w-were heroes now, so that incident with me and the gun on the asteroid lets keep that under the wraps, okay?" He clapped AJ on the back, before jumping down. Rachel smiled and shook her head, Chick and Bear went down. Rachel looked at AJ and grinned,

"You did it."

AJ smiled, "No. We did it."

They jumped, Rachel nearly cried out in the pain in her side, she again bit down on her j;I[ and ignored it. Forcing herself to look all right. Rachel, Chick and Bear stood at the edge as Andropov came down, he hopped a little, Rachel grabbed him to prevent him from falling. Sharp jumped down, she grabbed his arm to brace him.

The charming look he had sent her way, sent chills up her spine, she grinned softly. As Watts came down, Chick and Bear suddenly jumped back, leaving Rachel to grab a hold of her, nearly pulling herself down as well.

"What the hell was that?" Rachel growled.

Chick muttered, "Last time I tried to help a woman, she charged me for sexual assault."

Bear shrugged in response, "He told me the story, I was just being cautious."

Rachel shook her head, a slight smile forming at the edges of her mouth. A large crowd headed their way, as helicopters flew over. They walked towards the large crowd, waiting. Rachel's eyes wandered around their group, on their way to the asteroid, it was so thick…now…She was impacted with how devastating the deaths had been.

They all died fighting for the world, several died in terror, and now being the heroes they were, they would never return home. Grace charged from the back of the crowd, AJ broke into a run to meet her. They jumped into each other's arms, the crowd exploded into applause in response.

Bear was met by his parents, Rachel smiled as she knew they hadn't talked nor seen each other in a long time. Sharp was attacked by his little girls, and she couldn't help but grin at the sound of their laughter, and his.

Rachel and Chick walked by having no one to greet them. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a red haired woman appear, a little boy charging past her. He hopped every few steps, his arms held out wide, Chick dropped into a crouching position, picking the little boy up, who hugged him very tightly.

The woman smiled, a look of pride crossed her face as she looked at Chick. She was proud of him, very. She approached him, as Chick buried his face in the little boy, tears welled up in his eyes, she pulled his face towards hers. Chick murmured softly, "I love ya', Diane. Always did."

She nodded her head, her eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep and many tears.

Grace rubbed her hand softly across AJ's face. Sharp appeared before them he spoke,

"Ms. Stamper."

They parted slightly, she turned to face him curiously. He snapped to attention and saluted,

"Colonel Willie Sharp, United States Air Force Ma'am."

Grace's eyes remained locked with his as he continued, "Requesting permission, to shake the hand of the daughter of the _bravest_ man I have ever met."

Tears formed in her eyes as she shook his hand firmly, he nodded his head towards AJ. And took his leave. Rockhound was looking around, when suddenly a woman spoke,

"Hello Senor."

Rockhound looked at her, his eyes widened, "Oh my god!"

"Hi, you're my hero!"

Molly tackled him to the ground, Rockhound spoke,

"Oh baby, I wanna have babies with you." She kissed him repeatedly.

Truman approached AJ and Grace, he smiled,

"Welcome back Cowboy."

AJ looked down and handed Truman the shuttle mission's patch, "Uh, Harry wanted you to have this."

Truman accepted it, he looked at it, and smiled, "He did, huh?"

He continued looking at the patch as six f-15 jets roared over in formation, and in honor of the fallen Astronauts, and in honor of those that had returned.

Rachel limped into the NASA building, towards the medical office. She stopped momentarily to lean against the wall, it was becoming extremely difficult for her to see clearly, much less walk correctly.

She stumbled into the office, the doctor looked up,

"Ms. Velsing?"

She croaked out, "I-I think I'm dying Doc."

Now being away from the crowds, the press, her friends, she collapsed. She grabbed her side in pain, the doctor's eyes widened as the blood dripped from her mouth. His hand slammed down on the alarm button, he spoke quickly,

"Velsing, can you stand?"

Rachel struggled to her feet, and nearly collapsed again, her breath becoming extremely ragged. She suddenly stopped, her face paling several shades all at once. Other nurses and doctors rushed in, having to haul Rachel onto a gurney.

Truman clapped a hand on Sharp's back. He smiled at him, when Quincy ran up, breathlessly speaking,

"Rachel's just collapsed in the medical office. Doc doesn't know what's wrong yet, but apparently she knows she's dying."

Truman shot Sharp an alarmed look, Sharp growled,

"Damn it, She said she was fine."

They all broke into a run, Truman shouted,

"What happened up there?!"

"There was a rock storm." Sharp replied as they entered the medical portion of the NASA station. They stopped outside the glass window, peering in. Doctors and nurses rushed around with miscellaneous medical instruments. Sharp stared at Rachel's pale face, the machine beeped slowly, and faintly. Though she was alive.

His hand wiped across his face quickly, his breath coming quickly, though he was no longer out of breath. Truman looked at him and spoke softly,

"Something going on between you two?"

Sharp looked at him once, his eyes narrowed cautiously. He looked back to Rachel, remaining silent. Truman nodded his head.

"What happened?"

Sharp shook his head, looking downwards. He replied quietly, "It was a one time thing."

Truman raised his eyebrows as he stared into the room, Sharp chuckled bitterly, "No, sir. It was only a kiss."

He leaned against the window sill, the many emotions he felt, the 'thing' they shared racing through his mind all at once. It drove him insane, how his emotions controlled him so strongly, even though he had only known her for 12 days. Sharp sighed in defeat, he looked downwards. Only to snap up as the machine began to beep quicker, and quicker. The doctor shouted,

"She's crashing!"

"1, 2, 3 CLEAR!"

There was no response.

"1, 2, 3 CLEAR!"

Sharp stared, his mind whirling in horror. Though he hadn't known half the terror, when Rachel's heart stopped.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

**1 month later**

Sharp stood sorrowfully before the tombstone, he spoke softly,

"You know, a day doesn't go by that Jasmine and Katie don't ask about you. It hurts me terribly to have to tell them, that you aren't ever coming back."

He crouched down, his reflection showing in the bright marble stone.

"I pushed for your history to be revised, they removed your dishonorable discharge and you were awarded the silver star in addition to the bronze star for your service in space."

"You deserve it. I've never met any woman quite as brave as you were Rache, and I don't think I ever will again. I'm sorry that we never got to even know each other better, I know I wanted to, hell, I don't think was time up there that I had ever stopped thinking about you."

"You just had that kind of effect on me…I'm gonna miss ya' Rache."

Sharp stood up slowly, his eyes scanning over the stone before turning to leave, and never return due to the pain it caused him. Two woman had ever felt love for so quickly, and both had passed on, much too quickly. Rachel died in complete terror and pain unlike his wife.

That day only a month ago, Rachel's heart had stopped three times in twenty minutes. The doctors were astounded that she had come back each time, on the fourth time, Rachel just didn't have it to fight anymore. It turned out she had severely broken three ribs, the first one the worst of all. It had completely broken off, and through the work in space and her constant continuous movement, it became lodged in her heart and caused internal bleeding.

Even though she died while unconscious, the doctor said she had died in without a doubt, tremendous pain.

He continued on down, his eyes falling on the tombstones of the other fallen Astronauts, the ones that would never return to earth, but would always be remembered as the greatest heroes of all time.

The journey hadn't only been a mission but the distance humans would go for love and friendships, for life…It had been the high note of the history of mankind.

**Sorry this chapter took so long guys, but if you notice it is significantly longer than my other ones. I honestly couldn't find a good stopping point until now. **

**Thank you guys so much for reading, and to those who left reviews x)**

**R T R:**

**Darthbane2007 - I'm glad you like it! Thanks! As for the Rachel's 'escape', she used the same concept as AJ did with the Armadillo, except she did it to travel faster than simple walking. In reality, it would work, but would be extremely dangerous and highly not recommended, but seeing as it was a last resort, and judging Rachel's character it seemed appropriate. Thanks for reading and reviewing, I hoped that help some!**

**Bunny94 - Nah, but it does make you feel like crap xP I love Oscar too x) As for your question, just read the above answer to the same question x) Thanks for reading and reviewing!**

**Anybody else wanna review? Come on all it takes is thirty seconds x)**

**Sincerely,**

**Marinec**

Rachel Velsing

'Rache'

1966 - 1998

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: All original movie characters, lines, settings etc. Belong rightfully to their creators. I own nothing except Rachel Velsing.**

**Chapter 5 - 56 years later**

**A R M A G E D D O N**

**Could you really call life afterwards 'survival'?**

**Year: 2055**

His chair creaked, as wavered back and forth in a rocking motion. His dark, blue eyes pierced the air as they always had before. It had been 56 long years, and not one day had gone by that her face hadn't run through his mind. What could of have been, always lurked…

56 years ago today, was the day he had helped saved the entire world from mass extinction, the day Harry Stamper gave his life for all of humanity, and the day Rachel Velsing had died.

And still today the doctors words wounded him, 'She, without a doubt died in tremendous pain.'

The strange thing was, they had only known each other for 12 mere days, and in those 12 days he came to care for the oil driller more than he thought he could ever care for a woman again. And with her death, love had betrayed him again.

First with the death of his wife, and then the death of Rachel. Colonel Willie Sharp never loved again, nor even tried. He feared his heart would not be able to survive another eternal brutal assault.

The director of NASA, amazingly was Harry Frost, AJ and Grace's son whom they named after Harry Stamper. The kid had been born two years after the ordeal, in the year 2000, now it being 2055, he was thriving as the one of the greatest directors since Dan Truman.

According to NASA officials, the right half of the asteroid; Dotty, would be passing by earth once more. The kid had ordered a team of Astronauts to go up and collect anything they found, if they found anything. It would only be a few hours until they returned although they had lost all radio connect once the astronauts had landed, so even if they returned was a complete mystery.

Actually, Sharp had lost all track of time, he wasn't even sure what day it was or what time of day it was. He was getting old and tired, at 98 years old, he was finished with life, but his body seemed to refuse, like it was waiting for something. Something that would never come.

There was suddenly a knock at the door bringing Sharp from his reverie. Jasmine came running from the back of the house,

"I'm coming!" She shouted, Sharp heard the door creak open and several voices speaking quickly. Shocked tones were exchanged, and some excitement he could detect. Harry Frost appeared before Sharp. His dark blue eyes connected with the grey ones of the excited man. He bent down and spoke softly,

"Hey Colonel."

Sharp said nothing, not having the strength to do so. He simply stared at him caringly, in what way he could. Harry licked his lips,

"The astronauts returned…they found something, actually a lot."

"Ya' remember when you told me the final words of Rachel? And how ya' told me if I ever got the chance to help her with that final wish? I got it done Colonel, and more."

"We brought Oscar Choi back to earth, his funeral is set to be this Friday…"

And for the first time in many years Sharp smiled. He coughed wearily, "G-Good job boy." Finally her final wish had been fulfilled, her last words still rung in his ears, never to be forgotten…

_Rachel's weak and clammy hand grasped his forearm, his eyes looking down into hers with fear and worry. Her body arched in the pain, as blood just continued to pour endlessly, her quickening fading eyes, flickered dimly. She managed to whisper, _

"_B-bring O-O-Oscar b-back-" She didn't have the strength to say anymore, her eyes staring pleadingly into his._

_It was then Sharp knew, he never controlled her, she never could have felt for him as she did for Oscar. Oscar had been her true love, and nothing could have ever changed that. And even as he felt the emotions wretching in his body, wanting, and needing her, he knew he could never have her. For her love of Oscar and death stood in the way. _

_He felt the unfamiliar feeling coursing through him and knew, no matter whether she ever could love him or not, he would fulfill her final wish, he wouldn't let it die, and he would never forget. He shook his head in the total reality of it all, his voice whispering, "No, no, no." Rachel began to choke up, her heart beat slowed down, and finally stopped…for the fourth and final time…_

Sharp rocked slowly in his chair, the smile never leaving his face, even though he still felt pain knowing she could have never cared for him as she did for Oscar, he did what he could to fulfill her final wish, and knowing he had done that put him to rest at last.

And for the first time since that terrible day in 1998, Sharp felt at peace. His eyes slowly closed as his mind relaxed and his body did as a whole. They never opened again, and he peacefully went to sleep, never to awaken, neither ever wanting to. He finally had fulfilled his life mission to fulfill the wish of a lost love, a lost love that could have never loved him…

**LAST PILOT OF SHUTTLE FREEDOM, DEAD AT 98**

_**Colonel William Sharp died two days ago at the age of 98. Authorities affirm the cause was of old age. He died not a minute after the news had arrived of the recovering of shuttle Independence's long lost crew member, Oscar Choi. Both of their funerals will be held this Friday at 1200 hours. A 21 gun salute will be preformed as well as top honors for their service to this country and to all of humanity. **_

_**May they rest in peace.**_

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

**All right, well this is the final chapter of this story, I really hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did writing it. I had this idea kind of hanging in the back of my mind throughout the entire story, and though what the hell it would tie the loose ends up and provide a good closing chapter, albeit a sad one xP**

**Thank you very much to all who read and especially to those who reviewed x)**

**R T R**

**Bunny94:**

**Yeah xP Uh…there really isn't no good answer to that question, just the way the story went xP lol.**

**I'm thrilled you liked it so much! Uh no, actually Rachel was modeled after my own personality with better physical - looking qualities xD Uh…the character died from her heart stopping, as for the person she is made after, uh no, I'm not dead…yet O.O lol. Well anyways, thank you so much for your support of all of my stories, I really appreciate it! **

**Sincerely,**

**Marinec**

**BTW that last portion of this chapter in bold and italicized, is like a news paper clipping, just so you guys know, I don't want any of you guys to get confused or something xP**


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